






.♦^•v. 








*• <^^ 



•*t*^o^ 




,fy •'JAj* *> 



V^^ .' 









/'..^•.V 








'VVi* <^ 



^''' .vi.. ^<J> 










• A^^vP. 










TbPERY. 



•^> 



AN ENEMY TO 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS 

LIBERTY; 



AKD 



DANGEROUS TO OUR REPUBLIC. 



/ 



BY W. C. BROWNLEE, D. D. 
Of the Collegiate Protestant Reformed Dutch Chureh, N. T. 



-*' Go to your bloody rites again; 



Preach— perpoirate damnation in your den: 

Then let your altars, ye blasphemers ! peal 

With thanks to heaven, that let you loose again, 

To practise deeas with torturing fire and steel, 

No eye may search, no tongue may challenge, or reveaL " 



NEW-YORK I 



BOWNE ft WI8NER — 
PHILADE 




'>^'l 






Entered, 

According to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by 

WILLIAM C. BROWNLEE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 

NEW YORK. 



STEREOTYPED BY FRANCIS P. RIPLEY, 
NEW YORK. 



TO THE 

AMERICAN YOUNG MEN, 

THE 

FUTURE CITIZENS, AND MAGISTRATES, AND MINISTERS 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES. 



Young Gentlemen : — I come before, you not as a secta- 
rian ; nor as a polemic. I come before you to beg a hearing 
on a subject, not only of the deepest interest to our holy reli- 
gion, but involving, as I verily beheve, the very existence of 
our liberties, and the perpetuity of our Republic. 

In the Roman Catholic religion, we have detected an invad- 
ing enemy, audaciously conspiring, under the mask of holy 
religion^ against the liberties of our country : we have dragged 
it forward into the hght ; we have stripped the vizor off its 
face; and have brought it up to your tribunal, for public 
judgment in the case. 

It is a system of mere human policy ; altogether of foreign 
origin ; foreign in its support ; importing foreign vassals ; and 
sending a most baneful foreign influence over us. Its pope, 
and his priests, are politicians ; men of the world, and mere 
men of pleasure. It is, as a system, in the hands of a foreign 
despotism, precisely what the Koran is in the hands of the 



^ DEDICATION. 

grand Turk, and his muftis. It is a tremendous weapon wield- 
ed against peace and good order— the hilt of which is at Rome. 

It is as intolerant in poUtics as it is in religion ; it claims to 
tax the subjects and citizens of every country ; it has inter- 
dicted nations ; dethroned chief magistrates ; dissolved civil 
governments ; suspended commerce ; annulled civil laws ; 
and, to gratify its lust of ambition, it has thrown whole na- 
tions mto utter confusion. It wages a war of extermination 
against the freedom of the press ; and against the rights of 
human conscience, and the liberties of man. It aims at uni- 
versal power over the bodies, and souls of all men : and his- 
tory proclaims that its weapons have been dungeons ; and 
racks ; and chains ; and fire and sword I It is now annually 
pouring in upon us, its armies of resolute men, — prelates, 
priests, monks, nuns, and hundreds of thousands of the very 
offscourings of the European Catholic population ! And be 
assured, young men of America, that just as certainly as these 
sons of Belial shall reach the power which they lust after, in 
this land, they will enact upon us all the bloody scenes of Ro- 
man Catholic Europe; which will make the ears of every 
American citizen to tingle ! Under Almighty God, the protec- 
tor of our RepubUc, it is in your power, young men of Amer- 
ica, to cause this enemy^s " arm to be clean dried up^ and his 
right eye to be utterly darkened ! " 

I am, Young Gentlemen, 
Your fellow-citizen, and humble servant, 
W. C. BROWNLEE. 

New-York, Nov. l&^B, 



CONTENTS. 



The Dedication to the American Young Men 3 

The Introduction. 13 

PART I. 

SHOWING THAT POPERY IS A FATAL ENEMY TO RELIGIOUS 
LIBERTY. 

CHAP. I. Popery in its Principles and Spirit in no 

RESPECT CHANGED FOR THE BETTER. 35 

This important fact denied by two very opposite classes, 
namely — Jesuits and ill-informed Protestants. Appeals to 
young Americans on the subject. An outcry, made for effect, 
by some against our free discussion ; as if we were institu- 
ting an actual persecution for religion. This not strictly a 
religious controversy: — it is a defence of our civil and reli- 
gious liberty, against a dangerous foreign enemy. A popular 
■objection raised against those who oppose the inroad of 
popery, namely — What can such a mere handful do against 
the United States 7 Two questions respectfully submitted 
in reply to this. Proof of serious danger to our free institu- 
tions. Our too hberal Protestants receive no thanks from 
the Jesuits, for their officious apologies volunteered in their 
behalf. A serious qiiestion proposed, touching nominal 
Protestants, who continue to favour papists. 

CJHAP. II. Popery a fatal enemy to Religious Liberty. .44 
Religious liberty never to be shackled by any law of man, 
or any human systems. Without religibus liberty, no people 
can be truly said to enjoy civil liberty. The men whose 
religious creeds and practices tend to destroy, or in any 
degree, abridge rehgious liberty, are natural enemies to civil 
hberty. 1st, This fatal tendency charged on popery. Its 
first principles necessaril}/; tend to destroy the natural rights 
of conscience. It prohibits the use of the Holy Scriptures 
in the people's vernacular. It denounces Bible Societies. 
It imposes on the human conscience, a novel system of 
mere human invention : and it imposes this false religion on 
the conscience by civil penalties, wherever it has the power. 
2d. This tendency charged on popery, because it has the 
necessary effect of corrupting the public morals, and abridg- 
ing the freedom of thought. Proof from national facts. It 
tends to dissolve the very bonds of civil society. Proof of 
this. It declares, as one of its dogmas, that No faith is to 
be kept with heretics, where it has the power; and it dis- 
penses with the most solemn oaths, and dissolves the bonds 
1* 



6 CONTENTS. 

of a people's allegiance to their government. Proof of this 
from historical facts. 

CHAP. III. 3d. Roman Priests incapable of being true 

Republican Citizen. • • . • • 55 

Proof. They are the subjects of a foreign despot. They 
are sworn by the only oath which can bind a priest, and to 
the only sovereign which they confess to be their superior. 
Copy of their great oath. Specimen of the haughty claims 
of Romish priests. Quotation, in which they teach that a 
priest is as superior to a magistrate, as a man is superior to 
a beast. Specimen of the effects of this insufferable haughti- 
ness. The Confessional. Popery organized on these dan- 
gerous principles, even in our own republic. The pope ad- 
mitted to be the superior of papists, even in temporal things. 
This, of course, denied; but there is no point more suscep- 
tible of proof. Specimen of proof. 4th. Popery the Res- 
olute Enemy of Popular Education. Proof from their 
dogmas, and national facts. Their Indexes. Our best Eng- 
lish Classics all proscribed. Proof. Case of Galileo and 
modern astronomy. Doblado's Letters on the state of edu- 
cation in Spain, quoted. 

CHAP. IV 67 

5th. The Romish Priests wield a tremendous power 
over their people, by their doctrine of /n^en^ion. Explanation 
of this thing. Specimen of its practical apphcation. Priests 
gravely assume the power to convey grace by xheix intention^ 
through each of their seven sacraments. A seven-fold wea- 
pon thus wielded by these ghostly tyrants, over the people's 
consciences. . Specimen. Papists believe that their desti- 
nies in time, and for eternity, are always and entirely in 
their priests' hands. Hence the secret of the priest's un- 
bounded power over them. 6th. The Confessional another 
dangerous instrument of spiritual despotism. Priests seat 
themselves in the temple of God, and in his throne — they 
pardon sins, not declaratively merely, but judicially. This 
another source of their dangerous power over the victims of 
their superstition. Curious anecdote. 7th. The Romish 
priesthood lay claims to the extraordinary power of damn- 
ing SOULS. Proof. 8th. Purgatory another singular weapon 
of their destructive influence. Its meaning. Nature. Use. 
The Romish priesthood sets out with the astonishing claims 
to the power and authority of bringing any soul out of pui-ga- 
tory, at the proper prices fixed by their church. The natural 
effects of all these claims of sacerdotal influence. The pa- 
pists are thence in the hands of their priests, who can wield 
them, if they please, against all law, all order, all government! 
CHAP. V. 9th. Popery Hostile to Liberty and Rights 

OF Conscience.... 83 

Anecdote of a person at the Confessional, who ventured 



CONTENTS. 7 

t 

to think for himself. Popery assumes the elemental tenet, 
that laymen have no right to the liberty of conscience. 1st. 
The pope affects to give to the Bible all the authority it has. 
Popery a religio-n transacted wholly by proxy. The Duke 
of Brunswick s fifty reasons for becoming a papist. 2d. By 
baptism, the papist is actually made a slave, "to be com- 
pelled" by his priests to adopt their religion. The church 
of Rome recognises baptism performed bv laymen, and even 
by heretics. This apparent liberahty ib really a yoke, by 
which they further their domination over all. Appalhng 
proof of this in the instance of the cruelly entreated Moors 
of Spain. 3d. No R. C. Diocess, or Chapel, is permitted to 
have any voice in the choice of their spiritual guides. For- 
eign despots dictate to them their guides, without any appeal. 
This uproots every principle of liberty. 4th. No popish lay- 
man allowed to read the Bible, or draw his own religion by 
his own conscience, from it. Specimen of papal conspiracy 
against the Bible. 5th. Popery dictates to men's consciences 
articles of faith that were never revealed by God. Speci- 
men. Mass. Origin of the phrase Hocus pocus. These 
fictions, thus imposed on men, put an end to all liberty of 
conscience. 

CHAP. VI 99 

PoPERv farther shown to be the same unchanged evil, 
and foe of man, as in the Dark Ages. These Dark Ages, in 
fact, the Augustan Age of popery. They are looked back 
to, with feelings of pride, and exultation, by all Romish 
priests. Ignorance the mother of devction. The pope's 
Index Prohibitory. Dens' Theology. Quotations from this 
INFAMOUS text book of Maynooth Colle2e. Its horrible 
tenets. The Jesuit's confession of faith in Hungary. The 

f)resent pope's Circular Letter quoted, against all claims to 
iberty of conscience. 6th. Proof of hostihty to liberty of 
conscience, from the deeds of popery. Persecutions. Speci- 
men of them. Waldenses. Albigenses. Jews. Moors. 
Indians. Massacres by papists. Charles IX. Duke of 
Alva. Louis XIV. Q.ueen Mary. Number of victims who 
fell in defence of freedom of conscience. 7th. The Inquisi- 
tion a mortal enemy to hberty of conscience. Auto da fe. 
Amount of its victims in Spain. The Inquisition is put 
down nationally, but everv bishop is the Inquisitor in his 
own diocess. Hence the dungeon cells under every cathe- 
dral, the seat of the bishop. 

CHAP. VII. 108 

Popery a determined enemy of a Free Press. The 
opinions of papists on this subject are not to be learned 
from the constrained and unwilling toleration wrung from 
the priesthood in this republic, in its favour. The unusual 
affectations of liberality towards it here, in fact at war with 
Catholicity in Europe. Aim of the Roman Catholic press 



8 CONTENTS. 

among us. Its character. It studiously flatters the neutral, 
and liike warm Protestants among us. Its ierocious denun- 
ciation of those who raise the veil off its nupieties, treasons, 
and mischiefs. I. Papists employ the very freedom of the 
press gradually to dcstrov itshberty, and all free discussion. 
Proof. 1st. Certain queries put to them. 2d. Proof from 
the perpetuated existence of their Indexes. 3d. From the 
barbarism of every popish country. 4th. From papal edicts, 
and the influence of selfish ignorance thrown in the way of 
the Arts and Sciences. Galileo, and modern astronorny, 
aro still under the ban. Burgoigne's " Modern Spain" 
quoted. 5th. From their deadly opposition to freemen's 
meetings, and all free discussion ; ejected in popish lands, 
by positive prohibition ; and attempted in our land, by out- 
rage, riots, and mobs. II. The practical displays of popery 
against the free press. Proofs. Specmiens. Quotations 
frorn doctors. Decrees of councils. The pope's circular. 
National facts, in Europe. In South America. 

CHAP. VIII. POPBE-Y INVARIABLY UNITES ChURCH AND 

State where it has the Power. ; • • 122 

This unnatural union esi-ential to popery. Jesuits, of 
course, deny this fact. They labour to co'nceal it. The 
striking method resorted to by them, in order to conceal this 
disgusting and unpopular feature, is this, — boldly to raise 
the hue and cry against Protestants, and charge upon them 
the very thing of which they are accused. Proof that po- 
pery, by its essential elements, combines church and state. 
1st. From factr^ in its history. 2d. It is peremptorily avowed 
by the preset t pope, in his circular of 1833. (Quotations 
frorn this Bull. This union different from that in England. 
Papists unite church and state so as to make a tool of the 
state^ to advance its own intolerant principles. Popish kings 
in Europe have for a thousand years been " the pope's hang- 
men." Proof. These infamous and outrageous principles 
carefully instilled into the pupils' minds, in all the popish 
seminaries in our land. The Jesuits have only to accom- 
plish three things in order to succeed in their conspiracy 
against our liberties. 1. Corrupt the pubhc morals. 2. Im- 
bue the minds of our youth with European principles^ of 
absolutism. 3. Create a vicious and turbulent population 
in the U. States. Popery and Jesuitism shown to be the 
very weapons forged by the master-skill of Satan, to effect 
these atrocious objects against our country. 

PART 11. 

SHOWING THAT POPERY IS A FATAL ENEMY TO CIVIL 

LIBERTY. 
CHAP. I. 131 

Popery a singular anomaly. No other svstem of impos- 



CONTENTS. 9 

ture at aa equai lo il, in the old or new world, — in ancient 
and modern times. It imposes on its victims a system com- 
pounded of all the elements of tyranny, superstition, and 
flagitiousness of paganism, together with all the despotism 
anci refinement of idolatry and wickedness, in modern times. 
Its government an equally singular anomaly. Its claims of 
ABSOLUTE SUPREMACY. Risc and progress of this ghostly 
power in the church. Constantine's unhappy policy. Three 
kinds of Episcopacy according to an old writer. Evangeli- 
cal Episcopacy. Human Episcopacy. Diabolical Episco- 
pacy. The last, that of popery. Who, in reality, claimed 
Jirst to be Universal bishop. This Jlrst in the Greek, — not 
the Roman Church. Curious fact that St. Gregory, the 
pope, himself rebuked this claim as antichristian. Gradual 
rise over the bishop's power by the Roman pope. Gradual 
rise and progress of the pope's temporal power. The popes 
first wrested from the emperors the right of calling coun- 
cils; next, the right of presiding in couiicils ; next, the pope 
was made a temporal prince, by the influence of a nmr- 
derer and traitor. Triple crown. Why it is triple. The 
popes next usurped supreme civil poxcer^ through the base 
policy of Charlemagne. 

CHAP. II 138 

The Head of the Roman Catholic Church claims 

AND exercises TeMPORJ^L POWER AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL 

POWER, in all countries where it has the majority of num- 
bers. Proof of this from four sources. First — From R.0- 
man catholic doctors of approved and standard authority 
in that church. Quotations from Blasias, proving that the 
pope, as vicar of God, has supreme power over all magis- 
trates. From Bzovius, that the pope is supreme prince 
over all Christian princes. From Mancinus, that all powers 
are dependent on the pope. From Moscovius, that all civil 
powers are the pope's subjects. From Scioppius, that the 
pope's power is imperial, and even over life and death. From 
Salmeron, that the pope is supreme over all civil govern- 
ments. From Maynardas, that the popes have supieme 
power over civil rulers, and laws. Quotations from cardi- 
nals and saints, showirg that thepope is held to be above 
all civil thrones, and all human laws. From Bellarmine, 
who is the fullest in proving the pope's power to Ve abso- 
lute, and over all civil rulers. Appeal to facts. The pope 
has created kings, and created nations into kingdoms. In- 
stance of this. 

CHAP. III. The Pope claims and exercises Temporal as 

WELL AS Spiritual Power • • 143 

Proof continued. Second — From Canon Law. This law 
of supreme authority with papists. Ridiculous attempt of 
the obscure Jesuits of Maynooth College, to set aside or 
«3cplain away this Canon Law. This law actually invests 



10 CONTENTS. 

the pope with power to dispense with all oaths, and vows. 
Q.uotations in evidence of this. It vests in the pope the 
power of annulling any civil law, for the good of Holy 
Mother. Priests are constituted by it, civil judges; and 
civil rulers it makes the tools of the church. Proof. The 
curious Jesuitism of the Maynooth Professors, in their 
annihilating explanations of this. Analysis of the Bull In 
Coena Domini. It lodges supreme civil povyer with the 
pope. This Bull ordered to be annually published. 
CHAP. IV. — The Roman Pope claims, and exercises, Tem- 
poral AS WELL AS Spiritual Power _• • • 151 

Proof continued. T'/iird — From the acts and doings of 
popes. Gradual rise of ghostly despotism. Pope Gregory 
actually rebuked the eastern pope, who first set up his claims 
of universal bishopin the East. At first, no pope claimed, or 
even thought of claiming, power over emperors or magis- 
trates. Proof They advanced slowly and cautiously to this 
civil powder, then boldly by imposture and crime. Gregory II. 
Adrian I. Specimen of sundry popes \yaxing bolder and 
bolder, by the very success of their criminal enterprises. 
Pope Gregory VII, usually styled ^' pope Hellbrandy^' carried 
out the papal power to the most audacious and criminal 
extreme. Pope Urban. The bloody pope Innocent III. 
Specimen of nis laying all civil powders at the pope's feet. 
Boniface VIII. Adrian IV. and Henry II. of England. 
They barter for, betray, and finally conquer, and ruin Ireland. 
The pope's smoke-money, or Peter's pence. John of Eng- 
land, and Innocent III. The Roman popes, and Henry VIII, 
a.nd Queen Ehzabeth. All these papal claims, and usurpa- 
tions, have never been disavowed, nor withdrawn. 

CHAP. V. — The Pope claims' and exercises civil as well 
AS spiritual power. • 158 

Proof continued. Farther instances of Popes rigorously ex- 
ercising temporal power. Paul III. PiusV. Extracts from 
his Bull against Queen Elizabeth. Julius III, his new coin. 
Sixtus V. Alexander VI, claims power over all lands discov- 
ered, or not discovered. He parcels out America to his favour- 
ites. Curious blunder of his Infallible Vicarship, in dividing 
the new world, on the supposition that the globe was a vast 
Jiat plain ! Paul V, abrogates civil law in the 17th century. 
Defenders and sufferers for the Pope's teiuporal power, rais- 
ed to the highest honours — some actually made Saints. 
Specimens. Aquinas. Anselra. Becket. Even assassins 
have been sainted. The notorious Garnet, w^ho was execu- 
ted as a conspirator in The Gunpowder Plot, is now Saint 
Henry ! Curious shuffling of the Maynooth Professors, in 
explaining away this power claimed by Popes. Den's The- 
ology in Maynooth. Anecd9tes of Philip III— of Cromwel, 
and the Portuguese Inquisition. Pius VII, and his excom- 
munication of Napoleon. The present Pope and Don Pe- 



CONTENTS. 11 

dro. Reply to the usual objection, that papists frankly take 
the oath of allegiance here. 
CHAP. VI. — The Pope claims temporal as well as spir- 

ITtJAL POWER 171 

Proof continued. Fourth— From the decrees of General 
Councils. Eight General Councils by their solemn decrees, 
have invested the Pope with supreme power, over all secular 
powers. 1. The Fourth Council of Lateran. 2. Of Lyons. 
It deposed the Emperor Frederick II. This council lays down 
these principles,— that the Pope has the right and authority 
to interfere in the internal, regulations of secular govern- 
ments, — that he has a right to inflict civil pains, — that he 
has absolute civil power to inflict civil pains. 3. Of Vi- 
enna It decreed that God had given such power to the 
church, that the civil kingdom belonged to her. 4. Of Con- 
stance. Its outrageous decrees agamst France, and the 
Duke of Austria. 5. Of Pisa. It deposed all civil rulers who 
should obey either of the two Popes, which it had deposed. 
6. Of Basil. It deposed all magistrates who should refuse 
obedience to the new made Pope. 7. of Lateran. The 
Pope's two swords, defended. 8. Of Trent. It establishes 
the Pope's right to interfere, with authority, in the inter- 
nal affairs of a kingdom. Rucellai, a Roman Catholic 
statesman, gives a masterly exposition of the Bull, In Coena. 

CHAP. VII. — The Roman Catholic Priests, a privileged 
ORDER. • • • 178 

Proof of this. " Rome the capital of the Christian world." 
The Pope, their master. Popery is a great political engine. 
Not ( hristianity. Contrast of popery and Christianity. The 
one grand aim of popery is to secure power, riches, and plea- 
- sures. Priests are the Pope's officers in his ^rand standing 
army. Their real object in invading us — their policy — their 
character— perfectly fitted for their work of mischief Mrst^ 
They are isolated beings. Celibacy, facetiously called chas- 
tity. They have no ties to bind them to a country. Guilty 
debauched solitaires. Reckless janizaries. They have no- 
thing to lose by national losses, and nothing to gain 
by our national prosperity. The Roman priest has no 
country, no wife, children, or home. He is a fit instrument 
for any mischief and debauchery. Second, Bishops and 
Priests are vassals of a foreign power. Never can be citi- 
zens, never can be repubhcans. Despotism sucked in with 
their mother's milk. Sworn bv the only power they confess, 
and by the only oath that can Sind them. Proof of this. Copy 
of their oath. Analysis of it. Third, Priests are not al- 
lowed by their master at Rome, to take an oath of allegiance 
to any secular government. Proof Fourth^ Priests ex- 
empt from taxes in all lands where popery has power. 

CHAP. VIII. — ^RoMAN Catholic Priests a privileged or- 
der.. .186 



12 CONTENTS. 

Proof continued. Fyth— In popish lands the priests are de- 
clared to be 710^ amenable to civil authority for any crime. 
Explanation. We distinguish between facts, and the Pope's 
dogmas. Proof of this exempcion. Shuffling of the May- 
nooth doctors, to evade this position. BeUarmine advocates 
this dangerous exemption of the priesthood. Sixth — Priests 
and laymen who are true to their own Catholic tenets, can 
ii . no case, be true republicans. Additional notice, and 
ITOof of this heavy charge. 1st. Because they are the Pope's 
Sjubjects. Farther notice and proof. This being the case, 
no reliance can be placed on their oath of allegiance to gov- 
ernment. Proof of this. There is a dispensing power, al- 
lowing them, in fact, to take any oath, and to break through 
it. Anecdotes. Charles V. Judge Gaston, N. Carolina. 

CHAP. IX. — Roman Catholic Priests a privileged or- 
der .194 

Proof continued. Seventh — They are the Pope's tax ga- 
therers. Specimen of the ghostly taxes paid by papists. 
They are enormously taxed. Anecdote of a priest now liv- 
ing in Maryland. Extent of the priestly taxes in England. 
Ongin of the old Mortmain law. The sacerdotal taxes in 
Spain. Venice. A call upon the Roman Cathohc laymen 
of the United States, to procure an account, if possible, of 
papal taxations here. An appeal to republicans, and chris- 
tians, against these foreign Roman tax-gatherers. 

CHAP. X 199 

A summary of the doctrines and practices of the Romish 
church, held by modern papists in our republic. 

CONCLUSION 202 

Such the power organized by the foreign despot of Rome. 
This sustained by fire and sword. Five forms of persecution 
carried on by the Romish Hierarchy. Such the principles 
most vigorously propagated here, in our country, by Jesuit 
emissaries, from the different De propaganda of papal Eu- 
rope. Papal colonies now being poured in upon us. Bish- 
op England quoted. Evidence of foreign despots em- 
ploying this system of popery, and those Jesuits as their 
tools '* in educating and converting America.^' Charles X. 
quoted as patronising this foreign conspiracy against our in- 
stitutions. Metternich. Schlegel. The papists, here, move 
in a body, in politics^ as a religious sect. Proof. Instan- 
ces. Bardstown College. Flaget. Baraga. Quotations 
from the pubUshed Reports of tlie Leopoldine Institution. 
The address which, by facts, we are led to beheve the Met- 
terniches and Schlegels, will make to the Jesuits, and colo- 
nies of papists sent m upon us. An earnest appeal to all 
our fellow-citizens. 

Appendix.— I. Jesuit's Oath. II. London Beggars* petition. 
III. Index Expurgatorius. IV. Absolution, \. Prayer to tha 
Virgin Mar)^ 



INTRODUCTION 



Europe has been chained down in mental slavery 
for more than a thousand years. Popery, and its 
vassals, the despotic princes, forged those chains, 
and have rivetted them. 

But a gigantic struggle for liberty, and the rights 
of man, is now going on there. The holy fire which 
was so religiously preserved alive on the pure altar 
of truth, in the darkest ages, by the Christians and 
gallant spirits who lived in the Alpine valleys, kept 
up a dim, but steady light, in the midst of the ob- 
scurity. It gleamed forth, for a season, in the days 
of Huss, and Jerome of Prague ; it blazed out re- 
splendently at the ever blessed Reformation of Lu- 
ther. And it is now rolling onward, with an irre- 
sistible intensity of light and heat, over every kingdom 
of Europe. Even Spain is happily beginning to be 
convulsed, notwithstanding the unparalleled pres- 
sure of darkness and priestcraft on her. 

The despotic powers, who facetiously style them- 
selves the Legitimates^ are summoning to their aid 
every means which conscious guilt and terror can 
suggest, to crush the rising spirit of liberty. Their 
present struggle with the people, is for the retention 



li INTRODUCTION. 

of their plunder, and the perpetuity of their usurped 
power. No effort of genius and skill, no labour nor 
expense, no sacrifice of even millions of lives, will 
be spared to extinguish the last rays of liberty ; and 
to drive the people back to their dungeons, to slum- 
ber another generation, in the deathlike stillness of 
mental slavery. " As long as I live," said one of 
the despotic princes lately, " I will oppose a will of 
iron to the progress of liberal opinions." And these 
military powers will bring brazen heads and iron 
hearts to the terrible conflict ! 

No member of the Holy Alliance is ignorant of 
the fact, that this sacred light was rekindled by gal- 
lant and religious spirits in the United States ; and 
has thrown its radiance across the Atlantic with an 
intense and alarming brightness. The French offi- 
cers and soldiers, who served in the war of our 
Revolution, learned here a lesson which could not 
easily be forgotten by them. They perceived the 
spirit that is breathed by a Protestant people ; and 
tasted the sweets of that liberty which the gallant 
citizens of the United States secured to themselves. 
They went home : the painful contrast, which their 
trodden-down Catholic country forced upon their 
hearts, rendered the love of American liberty doubly 
dear. And they hastened to reduce the lesson they 
had learned to some practical use. 

Unhappily for France, neither the leaders of her 
Revolutions, nor the great mass of the population, 
understood pure republicanism. It is certain that 
they were morally unfit to be republicans: they 



INTRODUCTION. 16 

understood not the noble theory of self-government ; 
they were too ignorant, and too vicious, for the en- 
joyment of the holy boon of self-government. Lead- 
ers of mobs are not fit to be reformers : riotous tu- 
mults are not meetings of a free people : brutal 
licentiousness is not liberty : the demon of proscrip- 
tion and massacres is not the genius of reformation. 
An enlightened, steady, reflecting, and moral people 
alone, are capable of self-government. Such was 
the character of the Americans of the Thirteen 
States of ^6. Such was not the character of the 
French ; such is not the character of our neigh- 
bours of South America and Mexico. 

No intelligent politician wondered at the failure 
of the French Revolution. No one is surprised at 
the endless counter revolutions and mobocracy of 
South America. History and painful experience 
have confirmed the fact, that no nation, which has 
been long overrun, and consequently paralyzed, by 
the genius of popery, the nurse of ignorance and 
slavish principles, can possibly become republican 
all at once. There must be a resurrection before 
the dead can move : there must be light and life, 
before there can be action : there must be a per- 
fect regeneration of the national mind and spirit 
from all that is strictly popery, before a nation can 
take its rank as an enlightened and free people, 
among the kingdom.s of the earth. The history of 
the Spanish republics in the south, makes it manifest 
to every one, that if the old thirteen states had 
been thoroughly imbued with popery, neither the 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

potent influence of the old Congress of '76, nor 
the profound wisdom, and military skill of the im- 
mortal Washington himself, could have saved 
them ; far less given them independence ! 

Every crowned head in Europe rejoiced at the 
fall of the abortive republic of France. And over 
its ruins, they repeated with the greatest self-com- 
placency and gratulation, the old maxim, that No 
republic ever yet possessed sufficient stability to 
endure long ! While, as shrewd politicians, they 
hastened to adopt measures to perpetuate the reign 
of those elemental principles, that are so congenial 
to despotism, and so fatal to the rights and liberties 
of man. 

" The schoolmaster," said they, ''" is abroad ; but 
we shall put him under a salutary espionage ! The 
press has the temerity to utter the most dangerous 
maxims : it must be gagged ! The pulpit has been 
the potent auxiliary of liberalism in popular assem- 
blies : that must be subsidized ! The whole Roman 
priesthood shall be our soldiers. Our military shall, 
in return, be placed in his Holiness' service, and 
will prove themselves admirable illuminators of the 
public mind ; and the most judicious censors of our 
religion, and national morals. Fanatics may reason 
by the rules of logic, and the gospel. Our bayonets 
will certainly exhibit a shorter process ; and reach 
more convincing arguments to the hearts of fanatics, 
and republicans !" 

This is the genuine doctrine of popery and des- 
potism, wherever they have a foothold in the old 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

world. While, in Rome, Naples, and Austria, the 
clanking of the chains, and the sound of the ham- 
mer, rivetting them on their writhing victims, has 
been heard louder and louder than ever, from the 
dreary dungeons. And the cordon of guards has 
bee 1 doubled, to prevent the importation of litera- 
ture, and liberal principles; and stop the march of 
the schoolmaster over the land I 

Now, what nation is it that continues firmly to 
give the lie to the cherished maxim of tyranny, 
Tliat no republic possesses the elements of stability 
in it ? What nation is it that continues to demon- 
strate the fact, that a people can govern themselves ; 
and be a mighty people, without a standing army : 
a religious people, without a state religion ; and a 
glorious people, without kings or popes ; shavelings 
or nobles 1 What nation is it, to which all the peo- 
ple of Europe turn their eyes with longing desires 
after our freedom, in spite of the frowns of their op- 
pressors, or their cordon sanitaire of steel ? It is 
our republic, whose free institutions they have long 
admired ; to whose happiness and prosperity they 
look with feelings of envy, and the hope that makes 
the heart sick : whose books, and free constitutions, 
they contrive to obtain ; and study with the feelings 
of men who burn with eager desires to achieve their 
rights and liberties. "Behold,'' say they, "one 
great nation which has made itself free. And every 
other nation might, in like manner, make itself free, 
were they only as willing, as united, as intelligent, 

2* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

and as yirtuous, as were the brave Americans of 
seventy-six !" 

Now, I put it to our fellow-citizens to say, — if the 
despotic powers on the continent of Europe can be sup- 
posed to be so very ignorant as not to know all this : 
or so utterly indifferent to a sense of their own safety, 
as to shut their eyes against the influence which the 
very existence — not to say the successful operation 
of our flourishing republic — has visibly wrought upon 
their subjects ? Can v^e conceive any thing more 
calculated to keep alive, and to stimulate to the 
highest degree, that virtuous restlessness and salu- 
tary agitation, which the people, there, are constantly 
exhibiting and cherishing under their galling yoke ? 
The truth is this, — not one of the Legitimates of 
Europe feels himself firmly seated on his throne ; 
or even safe in the midst of his steel walls of bayo- 
nets, so long as our happy republic stands out before 
the eyes of his subjects, in its growing strength and 
increasing glory ; and holding out an inviting asy- 
lum to the oppressed of all nations. Its very exist- 
ence is a standing memorial before his eyes of what 
man's wisdom and courage can do, when he wills 
to be free. Its very existence seems to every des- 
pot, in his just fears, to beckon upon all men to rise 
likewise in their strength, and vindicate their natu- 
ral rights 1 

Can any reflecting man suppose that these are not 
reasons sufficient enough, to rouse each despot on 
the European continent to the most desperate hatred 
against our republican government and free institu- 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

tions ? Can any thing be conceived, amid all the 
movements, and revolutions of nations, more calcu- 
lated to do this, than such a republic, in an unex- 
ampled state of prosperity, being always before the 
eyes of these jealous and alarmed princes ? And 
is it not quite idle to suppose that such men, having 
at their command such resources, will stop short 
of the most determined and persevering opposition, 
not merely to our prosperity, but even to the very 
idea of tolerating our existence ? Well does each 
one of these despots know, that they soon must fall, 
or we must fall ! There is no possibility of a com- 
promise. What the mouth -piece of the Holy Al- 
liance said of their purposes against liberty in Eu- 
rope, discloses their intentions towards us. "The 
present generation is lost; but we must labour with 
zeal and earnestness to improve the spirit of that to 
come. It may require a hundred years : I am not 
unreasonable : I give you a whole age ; but you 
must work without relaxation." 

If these princes have the usual feelings of human 
nature, as they certainly have, and possess only a 
tithe of the shrewdness of those who are deeply ini- 
tiated into the mysteries of kingcraft, and priestcraft, 
can any one imagine that this common fear, and 
hatred, will not combine them in a league to destroy 
us, as the common enemy of all the legitimate go- 
vernments of Europe? Just as surely as a well- 
grounded fear will prompt a man to instant self-de- 
fence, will those princes persist in following out, 
with desperate effort, the object of their " Holv Al- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

liance :" and seek to destroy us, in order most 
effectually, to check the fatal growth of " Liberal- 
ism," which is threatening the stability of every 
throne in Europe ! 

This is no conjecture. The following note from 
Lord Brougham, written in January, 1824, was pub- 
lished in a respectable Journal, the >S. C. Observer 
of Charleston. It is valuable as coming from such 
a profound politician ; and as explaining, in a most 
rational manner, the motives which led " the Holy 
Alliance" to their conspiracy against our liberties. 

The act of the American government to which he 
alludes in the note, was that of our late distinguish- 
ed President, Mr. Munroe, who, in his message to 
Congress, announced it as his intention to take no 
part in the contest between Spain, and the South 
American states, unless the sovereigns of Europe 
interfered against these states. If they did, he 
recommended it to Congress to act with these states 
against Spain. Here is the note : — 

" Lord Brougham to Dr. Parr : 

" I heartily congratulate you on the admirable 
conduct of the American government. This is a 
real cordial to the spirits of all friends of liberty, 
and a wormwood to its enemies. Whether the Holy 
Allies will be mad enough to persist in spite of it, 
remains to be seen. I believe, however, that they 
are in a dilemma ; for, if they remain passive spec- 
tators of the complete establishment of democracy 
all over the new world, the despotic thrones of the 
old will he held, by a somewhat frail tenure .'" 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

We have still stronger evidence. In 1828, M. 
Schlegel, who has stood foremost amongst the lite- 
rary men of Catholic Europe, in his Lectures on the 
philosophy of History^ has laboured to demonstrate 
the mutual support which popery and monarchy lend 
to, and receive from each other. Church and state he 
insists, must always be united : and it is essential to 
the existence of each, that a pope be at the head of the 
one, and an emperor, absolute of course, at the head 
of the other. He takes occasion to show that Pro- 
testantism is absolutely the enemy of all good go- 
vernment; and that it is, in fact, the ally of jrepul^- 
licanism, the source of all distracted Europe's 
disorders, wars, and distresses. In short, that it is 
the cause of all the calamities with which the legi- 
timate gov einments of the old world are now being 
visited. In Vol. ii. Lecture 17, p. 286, this cunning 
politician thus breaks out against our republic. 
" TTie real nursery of all these destructive princi-^. 
pies, the revolutionary school for France^ and the 
rest of Europe^ has been North America. From, 
that land has the evil spread over many other 
lands^ either by natural contagion^ or by arbitrary 
communication,^'^ 

But does this man, who has, at length, just disco- 
vered the relation between protestantism and repub- 
lican liberty, and between popery and monarchy, 
hold official connexion with the Austrian govern- 
ment, and the Leopold Institution? Having apos- 
tatized from the Protestant, to the Roman Catholic 
church, he became a favourite of Archduke Charles 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

in 1809. In 1812, he became a marked favourite 
of Prince Metternich. In 1818, he was made secre- 
tary of the court, and counsellor of legation. Thus 
he has held office, and been a part of the Austrian 
government ; he has long been a member of the 
Austrian cabinet, and the confidential counsellor of 
Metternich ! In 1828, he delivered his lectures on 
the 'philosophy of History^ avouching these despotic 
principles. And, shortly after this, was formed 
.^^ Tlie Leopold Institutio7i^'^'' for the express pur- 
pose of extending the Roman Catholic religion in 
America, and the undermining of Protestant princi- 
ples in our republic. 

I put it to any professional gentleman to say, if 
any further evidence on this matter, can be obtained, 
short of the open avowal by the conspirators ; — an 
evidence, by the way, w^hich we cannot obtain while 
they retain their senses ! 

Now, it is as clear as noon day, even to Schlegel, 
and to Prince Metternich, that no military power, 
which, at any one time, can be thrown upon our 
shores, is able to work our ruin, in the present state 
of our unity, our numbers, and resources. Our in- 
vaders will never appear, therefore, in the form of 
an '^Invincible Armada;''^ or an army of "body- 
guards." 

It is equally clear that our invaders will not ven- 
ture out upon us in the form of a '' Political Holy 
Alliance" in this country, to attack our free press, 
our political opinions, or republican institutions ; 
and bepraise the consolidated and omnipotent sys- 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

tern of monarchy and absolutism. Their ill-trained 
and blundering partizans may blab a dangerous 
secret, occasionally. But their masters know that 
even here, amid our generous and unbounded libe- 
rality, there is, after all, no toleration for overt acts 
of high treason ! We are liberal to excess ; and, 
it is almost incredible, v^hat v^e v^ill not bear from 
these self-sufficient, and audacious foreign Jesuits. 
But, after all, we are not absolutely, fools ! There 
is a certain point to which our patience may be 
stretched ; but wo to the men who would put us on 
the rack to stretch us beyond that point. Hence, it 
is very evident that the Legitimates will not attack 
us openly^ or by force. 

There is one assailable point : one plausible mask, 
under which, as they have assured themselves by 
means of their sacerdotal spies, they can very suc- 
cessfully assail us without exciting our suspicions, 
or even jealousy. It is this : — by our constitution 
and our liberal habits of thinking, the greatest possi- 
ble freedom is allowed ; together with an unbound- 
ed mutual toleration to all religions in the United 
States. Of the least encroachment on this, we are 
jealous even to excess. So much so, that when we 
undertake to expose the appalling evils of Pbpery, 
and to show that it is", in fact, but a mask which 
foreign emissaries throw over their political and 
daring conspiracy against our republican institutions, 
some who profess to be Protestants, refuse us even 
a hearing, under the plea that we are interfering with 
the religious liberty of others ! 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

The Roman Catholics understand this exactly. 
Hence say they, " we can approach these Protestant 
republicans, under a mask which will effectually lay 
every suspicion to rest. We shall assume the imposing 
attitude and sanctity of religion : we shall place our- 
selves before them as the church of God, We shall 
then be legally 'protected. Under the holy veil of most 
religious and devout ceremonies, we can find legal 
'protection for any course of conduct we shall choose 
to adopt. Should our operations happen to appear 
wholly political^ and our priests busy interferers in 
politics^ we can soon silence the illiberal fanatics 
by louder, and more earnest claims to exclusive holi- 
ness. Can men, such as our priests, so immaculate 
and heavenly as they are, in soul and body, that they 
will not even stoop to the ujiholy earthliness of 
marriage^ ever be conceived capable of dabbling in 
vile politics ; or of ever thinking of any thing on 
earth, but the good of their flocks ! We may not soon 
be the majority ; but we have it in charge from 
our masters in Vienna, and Rome, to watch the two 
great political parties here : we are not to care for 
the one or for the other, on any conscientious pre- 
ferences of either of these sturdy republicans. We 
are of neither party in our principles. We care not 
which predominate in the meantime. Our faithful 
Jesuits are instructed by their masters, simply to ap- 
plaud, to the heavens, that party alone which is, 
for the time being, in power : or that party that will 
offer the best terms to us, and give us the greatest 
facilities of promoting our mission from Vienna and 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

Rome. Our object prescribed to us is gradually to 
ruin both of the American parties ! Whatever 
party now, or in future, shall favour and caress us, 
and prove their liberality, by placing our partisans 
in offices of emolument, and power; and by aiding 
our peculiar institutions, by liberal contributions, 
from their own private purses, or from the public 
purse, — that party we will, as a body, sustain by 
our votes ; and we will laud them to the skies, as 
the only liberal and enlightened republicans ! 

" And it is not for nothing that we boast of the 
unity of Holy Mother. This unity is a potent polit- 
ical engine. No protestant sect has this unity of 
ours. We move in a body — one religious and polit- 
ical body, on a small scale, or a national scale. 
In a state, we all move as the priests bid us ; and 
we and the priest move as the bishop bids us. On a 
great national question, or vote, the archbishop 
moves all the bishops — these, the priests; and no 
Catholic will ever dare disobey the priest in tempo- 
rals, or spirituals ! Each of the great American 
parties knows this invincible result of our unity ! 
And the leaders of each, know how to move us, as 
a body J at the polls ! 

" Having obtained political favour and confidence 
with these American republicans, we shall soon be 
enabled to render effectual service to our masters 
in Europe. 

" A republic can flourish, as these sturdy republi- 
cans have shrewdly said, only among an enlighten- 
ed, and moral, and religious people. We shall co- 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

operate with the Holy Father, with Austria, and 
Ireland. They will pour in, annually, upon this 
nation, two hundred thousand of our proper mate- 
rials, — namely, the ignorant, vicious, degraded, tur- 
bulent, and mob-making people, from foreign lands. 
Every commotion of these useful and restless ele- 
ments, will, from time to time, create disturbances, 
and shake, by degrees, the very foundation of this 
too free government. We have every facility to 
do this: there is no espionage ; no European police; 
no passports required. We can throw in paupers, 
Jesuits, criminals escaped from justice, murderers, 
and the most apt knaves to work treason, while 
these unsuspecting republicans are fast asleep, and 
refuse to be awakened. We shall soon demonstrate 
to Europe how weak their republican laws are, and 
how inefficient their free government is. 

" There is another class of persons who must not 
be neglected. These are the people of taste, and 
wealth ; and also ' the sober-minded Protestants.' 
They can all be won over to the Holy Catholic 
cause : if not to favour us openly, at once ; at least 
to keep silence ; except so far as to oblige us by ad- 
ministering wholesome rebukes to those who busy 
themselves in reproaching, and writing against us. 
Every half Protestant, and all those who care for no 
creed of religion, we find, will be won over to go 
with us. To these we need only hold up the pro- 
testant religion as too crabbed and severe ; nay, as 
so shockingly illiberal, as to denounce all innocent 
amusements, such as gambling, card-playing, and 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

carousing. Hence, it is easy to see that they will 
all be grateful to us, for this exposure, and will all 
combine their influence with ours against the common 
foe. We shall even gain our object, if we prevail 
with their prejudices, so far as to induce them to 
remain perfectly neutral. We must divide the pro- 
testant world, in order effectually to conquer it. 
Hence, we call on every dutiful Jesuit to mark those 
' religious Protestants^ who are active and spirited 
in declaiming against their people and preachers, 
who are strenuously opposing us, and let them be 
careful to caress them, and applaud them, as the 
truly liberal, noble, and generous Christians ! 

" Let us lose no chance, whether in the chapel, or 
in the parlour, or lady's coterie, to make frequent 
appeals to the gay, and the religious. Let us secure 
all their sympathies, by praising their well-known 
liberality ; and by representing the Catholic religion 
as the old, and, therefore, the holy and only religion ; 
as being all love and all forbearance : it never per- 
secuted ; never hurt any one ; it has been continual- 
ly giving martyrs to heaven ; but it never shed a 
drop of blood! Represent it as so weak, so lowly, 
so pure, that it neither will nor can do the nation 
any harm ; and that the prolestant religion is the 
only persecuting religion in the world ! 

" We have had another capital project on foot. 
These stern republicans, and even the body of the 
religious, are not readers of history, philosophy, or 
theology. We are so far safe in this light and 
novel reading generation. Hence, there is very little 



29 INTRODUCTION. 

danger that the body of the people will listen to our 
opponents, or be induced to search after the books 
which contain our avowed tenets. And what is 
very fortunate, they are in Latin ! And the fanat- 
ics who write volumes against us, will not be read. 
Hence we have tiDO happy ways of eluding these 
stern and eternal polemics. First^ w^e put forth 
certain declamatory, and simple books, in English^ 
with certain scraps of doctrines, and prayers, alto- 
gether adapted to the meridian of a protestant com- 
munity. To these we point, as our standard books, 
containing our true principles. They succeed admi- 
rably among the simple and half Protestants; while 
our own people are well instructed at the confes- 
sional, to give no heed to them whatever ; — the priest 
alo7ie being- the only ride of faith and practice^ to 
the devout consciences of the faithful ! Second : — 
We train up Jesuits to the exercise of the most 
accomplished manners of the gentleman ; and the 
most accommodating liberalism of the infidel ; and 
we send them out as bishops and priests, and instruct 
them to become literally all things to all men ; to 
put the courtier's mask over the ferocious inquisi- 
tor's face ; to conceal, under the cloak of the most 
charming polish of manners, and fascinating mo- 
rals, all that is repulsive in Catholicity. And our peo- 
ple are charged to say to all opponents, — ^ Judge our 
tenets and doctrines by these men : look not into 
our Latin books, as these fanatics clamorously de- 
mand ; but look to these holy bishops and priests,^ 
Bishop Cheverus wooed over, simply by his pretty 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

exterior, and polished manners, no less than the 
Puritans of Boston. Dr. Dubourgh was as success- 
ful in this line in New-Orleans ; and Dr. Kelly at 
Richmond. The Jesuits know admirably well, the 
secret of human nature. Your Brutuses, with their 
walking canes of gold, covered over with horn, are all 
nonsense ! We put the whole of the gold on the 
exterior ! The smile, and the courtier's bow, and 
the fascinating manners, will make a thousand 
Catholic proselytes out of the gay and thoughtless 
assembly, before the dull audience have got half 
through their sleep under a fanatic's argument ! Our 
secret is this : — the people must be constrained to 
take our doctrines and religion, — not from our mis- 
sals, or canons, or decretals ; but from the lips of 
our gay Jesuits, and lady -priests, and their persua- 
sive pupils ! Then all is well. After we have 
gained the ascendency in America, which we have 
had in Spain and Austria, we shall, then^ woo them 
as the lion woos his bride ! 

" Finally, when we are in danger of having our pro- 
jects disturbed, by the busy fanatics who watch us 
with the perseverance of blood-hounds ; our faithful 
Jesuits have it in charge from their masters the Pope 
and the emperor, to act with caution. Betray no 
passion, nor consciousness of guilt. Though caught 
even in the act, criwdne flagrante^ give the lie lo 
the very evidence of your enemies' senses ! Deny 
EVERY THING, ADMIT NOTHING ! And, wheu the worst 
comes to the worst, assume the touching attitude 
of injured innocence, and raise the hue and cry of 
3* 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

Persecution for our holy religion ! Become, all 
at once, ardently devoted republicans ; expatiate in 
raptures on the infinite superiority of these free and 
blessed institutions; give, for efiect, a side-blow, 
now and then, at the wicked despot of Austria ; and 
declaim, with passionate eloquence, even against 
the Pope's temporal power, as utterly insufferable in 
this glorious republic ! Mental reservation can 
prevent any damning guilt in these lies ; or, absolu- 
tion can be readily obtained at the holy and refresh- 
ing confessional! The end always sanctifies the 
MEANS. And a few lies for the benefit of our sufier- 
ing Holy Mother will never damn any man ; or even 
incur the fires, and steam, of purgatory ! The Pope 
hath said it ! 

" It is an essential part, also, of our priests' reli- 
gion, to spare no pains in deliberately ruining the 
character of an antagonist, especially if he has had 
the audacity to write and preach against us. These 
heretics have, it is true, by some mysterious judg- 
ment of divine providence, obtained possession of 
our genuine books ; and, on account of the fatal ab- 
sence of the inquisition, they have learned out of 
our own writers, things that heretics should never 
have been allowed to know, without being sent to 
the stake ! These calamities could have been avert- 
ed, if our Inquisitor General of this provkice of 
America could only have plucked up courage enough 
to do his duty. As it is, we cannot deny these doc- 
trines, nor contradict these facts, so industriously 
gleaned out of Baronius, and other?. fBut one thing 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

we can do. We can ruin the public and private 
chaiacters of our opponents, these daring heretics, 
by charging on them every conceivable crime and 
enormity ; and, in particular, those very crimes of 
which they convict us ! This plan has a capital 
ejffect : this our church has most successfully pur- 
sued with regard to every one of the reformers. All 
of them we have gibbeted in our pious book, enti- 
tled, ' The Judgments of God on heretics.^ And 
this course we must vigorously pursue here, in 
order to put our enemies to silence and confusion. 
And should they be so wise as to withdraw from 
the field, as every half Protestant and Catholic are 
urging them honestly to do, we shall then applaud 
them in our turns, as the most pious, and the most 
liberal of men ! For our one grand aim is simply 
this : to be allowed, in silence to do our own work, 
in our own way, quietly serving our blessed masters 
who are — not in heaven, but in Vienna and Rome — 
in undermining heresy and liberty, and this republic, 
which is an insujQferable eyesore in the eyes of our 
Lord God the Pope (noster Dominus Deus Papa,) 
and the Pope's master. Prince Metternich, whom God 
long preserve !" * * * * * 

That these are the popish plots projected at Vien- 
na, and consecrated, very sincerely, by his Holi- 
ness's benediction, and now being actually executed 
over our country, has been very satisfactorily proved 
"by our distinguished fellow-citizen, who writes un- 
der the signature of Brutus, m his proofs of a 
" Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

United States.^^ And every traveller in Europe 
knows that the subjugation of the United States is 
the subject of daily, and earnest conversation, in every 
circle of society in Rome, Naples, and Vienna. 

I shall not repeat what has been so clearly and 
fully set forth on this conspiracy, by our townsman ; 
particularly in the second edition of his work. It 
is my object, at present, to demonstrate the alarming 
truth, that Popery is precisely that very weapon 
that ^s every way calculated^ in the hands offor- 
eig^^ despots J and their husy emissaries^ the Jesuit 
a/rM Dominican priests^ to work out the ruin of 
o^ir government^ and our free institutions, I beg 
leave to offer to the candid attention of all my fel- 
low-citizens, an argument to prove that POPERY 

IS THE FATAL ENEMY OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 
AND IS, THEREFORE, DANGEROUS TO OUR REPUBLIC. 

And this, I beg it to be observed, is precisely what 
Schlegel, in his Lectures on History, has laboured 
to prove, at Vienna ; though with a very different ob- 
ject in view ! 

May I be permitted one word to those Protestants 
who are opposed, or, at least, indifferent, to the pres- 
ent national controversy carried on with Popery, 
by the pulpit, and the press ? How can you, as 
Christians^ be neutral in this matter ? Do you not 
believe in the Revelation of St. John ? How can 
you as patriots stand by, and refuse to share in 
the glory of your country's deliverance ? I shall 
rehearse to you the anecdote of the bishop of Bran- 
denburgh, and Luther. " You will oppose the 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

church /'' cried that timid friend of the reformer : — 
" You cannot think in what a trouble you will in- 
volve yourself! You had infinitely better he quiet 
and silent /" Luther replied to his kind, but tim- 
orous friend, by his writings against the Pope, and 
by preaching, and by his glorious defence before 
the Diet of Worms ; and by burning the papal bulls ! 
And hence, " the ever blessed Reformation !" Half 
Protestants, and timorous friends, may hang on by 
the bishop of Brandenburgh's skirts and apron 
strings ; and strive to hold us back, and frighten us 
with the renewal of papal threatenings of assassina- 
tion ! But we will write, and preach, and declaim 
against popery, and burn the papal bulls, as hereto- 
fore ! Sustained by God, and the whole body of 
THE NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH, the word fear we do 
not know ! Let them fear who will, ere long, feel 
a nation's wrath ; and the terrors of an eternal 
world ! The Protestant's rallying word was uttered 
in the Diet of Worms, — " Here stand I : I cannot 
DO otherwise : may God help me ; Amen !" And 
it is re-echoed from Maine to Georgia, from New 
York to St. Louis, by every good man ! 

W. C. B. 



New York, November, 1835. 



POPERY, 



THE ENEMY OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 



PART FIRST. 



CHAP. I. 

Popery exer the saine evil — This denied by Jesuits, and half 
Protestants — Our duty to expose this evil — It is no persecu- 
tion — Popery a dangerous evil to our Country, as -well as 
to Religion — Popish intolerance is immutable — Cry of no 
danger — A question proposed respecting half Protestants in 
our land. 

" I shall ^o to Worms, should I encounter, there, as many devils as there are 
tiles on the houses."— Luther. 

Popery is the same, this day, in America, that 
it was in Europe in the Dark Ages. It does, in- 
deed, want, as yet, the power to execute its sanguin- 
ary dogmas. But its fiery genius, and uncom- 
promising intolerance has, in no respect, been 
changed, or even modified, for the better, by the 
growing light andlmprovements of the age. The 
returns of its power would, therefore, be the re- 
turn of the savage condition and barbarism of the 
Dark Ages. 

This truth I am anxious to impress on the 
youth of our country. And it is a truth to which 
every Christian, and every American citizen, will 
open their eyes soon. There are some Protestants, 
it is true, whose interests and habits, immoveable 



36 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

by age, will not permit them to yield on this point. 
These take the same ground in this, which many 
others did formerly to the great and benevolent in- 
stitutions of the day, when the church began to 
move in them. And had they lived in the days of 
Luther, they would have assailed, and opposed his 
innovations ; and lauded Holy Mother, and re- 
mained, with great complacence, zealous supporters 
of immutable old errors ! 

In the present national impulse we can succeed 
without them. We shall pursue the same course 
towards them, which missionaries do towards certain 
adult and aged Indians. Incapable of moving 
them from their incurable habits of former thought 
and action, we shall drop our tears of regret over 
their unreasonable prejudices, and betake ourselves 
with prayer, and dependance on God, to gain over 
all the rest, especially the youth. 

Already, indeed, does the great body of our in- 
genuous young men go decidedly with us. And 
we shall not rest contented until every youth, male 
and female, throughout the breadth and length of 
the land, be w^on over to the holy cause. And we 
here give the solemn warning, that before the pres- 
ent young generation be old, the grand moral and 
political conflict shall have to be fought between 
them, and the household troops of the foreign des- 
potism, that is pouring in its legions by hundreds 
of thousands, upon our shores ! 

And, sons of your gallant fathers, let me tell 
you, that the issue of the approaching conflict will 
be most eventful. These questions will soon have 
to be answered and determined, young republicans 
of America ; and that, too, at no remote day. Is 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 37 

this glorious Republic to be perpetuated, with all 
our civil and religious liberties, unimpaired ? Or, 
will you succumb, and tamely submit to become 
slaves and vassals, on your own soil, to the foreign 
despotism that is now invading us, and undermi- 
ning our free institutions, under the mask of the 
Roman Catholic religion ? 

Our ingenuous youth, we are confident, will not 
permit themselves to be turned aside from the de- 
fence of their country by the imposing cry of 
*' Persecution for religion.'''' " It is an affair of 
religion ; a mere question of polemics ; a trial of 
strength between priests of different sects : it is not 
a question of politics," cry these foreign partisans, 
*'and all religions are here allowed to have an 
equal and unbounded limitation. Every discreet 
citizen is bound, therefore, to let the Roman Ca- 
tholics alone !" 

This ludicrous outcry seems to assume that we 
have actually commenced butchering the innocent 
Roman Catholics, as these did the Waldenses ! 
Why, we are " letting the Roman Catholics alone." 
What Jesuit's wit, I pray you, has contrived to 
make people believe that an attack on dangerous 
principles, is an attack on a man's body and soul ! 
It is a singular fact in the history of all impostors 
and false religionists, that this has always been in- 
geniously resorted to. If you attack a man's folly 
with wit, or argue to reclaim him from a false religion, 
*' he bellows as he'd burst the heavens ;" and cries 
out upon you, for an assault and battery ! Soberly, 
we do say it, that the history, or logical demolition 
of a man's errors and heresy, is by no means a 
bodily assault. And no man resorts to this outcry 
4 



38 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

but bigots and impostors, who cannot reason, and 
know not how to repel an arg-ument. 

But this is not all. This objection which we 
meet with, at the very threshold, is incorrect in 
point of fact. The controversy between us and 
the foreign emissaries is by no means an affair 
purely of religion. We certainly do oppose the 
Roman Catholic religion as one of the most anom- 
alous combinations of fanaticism, idolatry, and 
absurdities conceivable ! But not in the present 
question do we oppose the Papists on the ground 
of their religion, merely. So far as they are merely 
religionists, we claim the same protection for them 
that we do for ourselves. M^n may make and sell 
as much Ao/y water as they please. If men choose 
to buy that, they certainly have as good a right to 
do so, as I have to prefer Cologne water. Men 
may put on the dress of a charlatan, and go 
through their manipulations of the mass, with their 
backs turned to the congregation, while they sport 
a huge black or red cross on their white muslins ; 
or their white cross over their black robes. They 
have the same right to turn their backs on the peo- 
ple, and preach by a dumb cross, as I have to stand 
with my face to my people, and speak face to face. 
Men may play off their wafer gods, and convey 
grace by the doctrine of Intention ; and sell masses 
for what they are worth in the market, and trade 
in purgatory's fire and steam. No man has a 
right forcibly to stop this ; people can trade in their 
own houses, in whatever article they may, by sol- 
emn convention, please. The tradesman, or farmer, 
converts the fruit of his labour into silver, in the 
market. The priest converts his masses, and wa- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 39 

fers, and absolutions, into silver, in his own peculiar 
market. If people voluntarily choose to take his 
wares for the stipulated price, no law can stop it. 
The Turk, the Jew, the Papist, the Christian, has, 
so far as it respects man's interference, a perfect and 
inalienable right to worship Almighty God in his 
own way. It is to his God, not to man, that he 
is accountable ; only, he must not injure his neigh- 
bour, or trench on the rights of society by his ex- 
travagances. 

But I shall resist all *' gag laws." No man 
shall rob me of my right to investigate my o\vn, or 
my neighbour's public creed of religion, and ex- 
pose its errors, and labour to bring myself and him 
to what is right, that we may both be saved. And 
if there be suspicions of danger to the state, lurk- 
ing under the gaudy robe of a plausible religious 
system, then it is not left to my choice to be silent. 
1 shall not be a good citizen if I do not forthwith 
give the alarm to my country. Every man is 
bound to labour in this respect : " ne quid detri- 
MENTi RESPUBLicA CAPIAT :" that the republic 
sustain no damage. 

But the voice of a thousand years' history has 
"Uttered the solemn and alarming fact, that the Ro- 
man Catholic religion, in every kingdom and 
country where it has had the majority of numbers, 
has invariably grasped the civil power ; and, uniting 
church and state, as it invariably does, makes a tool 
of it, so as to destroy every trace of liberty. For 
the evidence of this I appeal to the voice and his- 
tory of all Europe. 

Those who claim neutral ground, and profess to 
study peace, exclaim, — " It is incredible that such 



40 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

a small number of men, as the Roman Catholics 
are, can ever do us any real injury, were they even 
willing-." It is a singular coincidence that these 
*' peace men," do actually re-echo the very words 
of the foreign Jesuits, who betray much anxiety to 
induce the public to believe this : " What can such 
a small number do, were we even willing to con- 
spire against the republic?" 

I submit to my fellow-citizens the solution of 
two questions, in answer to this imposing question, 
so often reiterated in every company, and on all 
occasions, am.ong us. 

1st. How came it to pass that the pope of Rome, 
originally the smallest, and most contemptible aspi- 
rant of all the powers of Europe, even " the little 
horn," contrived to worm himself into considera- 
tion, and finally bring into his subjection ten of the 
most potent kingdoms — even all Europe ? 

And, 2d. How came it to pass that the smallest 
and most contemptible power of Europe, in point 
of dominions and physical force, has contrived to 
keep men of all ranks, in all these kingdoms, 
under the most servile and cruel bondage, for up- 
wards of a thousand years ? 

I reply to each of these, — this was done, not by 
force of arms, — not by the gospel of Christ, — not 
by holiness, or light, or truth ; but simply by the 
same species of foreign emissaries ; and by dark- 
ness; and by brijtalizing the human mind; and by 
strong delusions : in one word, he effected it pre- 
cisely by the same agency, and by the same 
means, whereby he is actually, this day, labouring 
to subdue us under his sway ! 

I beg my fellow-citizens, again and again, to be 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 41 

persuaded, that there is as much danger now to us, 
from the unchanged genius of popery, as ever 
there was in past ages to the people of the old 
world. It does, indeed, adapt itself to a Protestant 
community ; it wears the mask by rule and com- 
mand ; it draws its nicely adj usted vizor over its 
face ; it conceals the horns of the beast ; it mod- 
estly drops the robe over the cloven hoof; and it walks 
forth with the solemn g-ait of an anofel of lio-ht. 
But all this is in violence to its natural genius ; 
and it is only assumed for a time. It submits to 
this restraint like a spy in the camp. It is sustain- 
ed by the joyful hope of a glorious carnival. The 
Romish church has actually recorded this of her- 
self I allude to her memorable words in the notes 
of the Rhemish version, in Matthew xiii. 6: — 
" The good must tolerate the evil, when it is so 
strong that it cannot he redressed without danger, 

and disturbance of the whole church otherwise 

where ill men, be they heretics, or other malefactors, 
may be punished without disturbance, and hazard of 
the good, they may, and ought, by 'public authority, 
either spiritual or temporal, to be chastised, or execu- 
ted.'' 

Thus, they proclaim by this document, which is 
in the hand of every one of their priests, that they 
bear with us while we are the ''strongest;'" that 
they will, as soon as they obtain power, " chastise 
OR EXECUTE US." It is impossible to mistake the 
frankness, and spirit of this public avowal of 
Rome ! 

Besides, the Romish church claims infallibility. 
And no stronger insult can be offered to her than to - 

insinuate that she has, in the least degree, deviated 

4* 



42 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

from a single doctrine or practice of her own, since 
the days of the Council of Trent. And it is man- 
ifest that she never has retraced one step ; never 
confessed an error ; never revoked a foolish dogma ; 
nor condemned a bloody decree ! No ; nor has 
she shed one tear, or uttered one sigh of peniten- 
tial regret, over the millions of Jews, Moors, and 
Christians which her priests have butchered in 
cold blood ; as we shall see in the progress of our 
discussion. 

And on no other principle can it possibly be ex- 
plained, Avhy the body of the Romish peasantry, 
poured in upon us by hundreds of thousands, nei- 
ther do amalgamate with us, nor express a wish to 
do it ! Nay, they are enjoined by their masters 
not to think of it. They are kept as distinct a 
people from the American family, as the Jews or 
Turks are, in Europe, from the Christians. For 
no other reason is this so managed, than to prepare 
the way for the ascendency of popery. Did they 
amalgamate and be Americanized, the spell of 
priestcraft would be broken in one week, and this 
foreign party, — foreign in its allegiance, — foreign 
in its subjection of mund and affections, — foreign 
in all its aims and pursuits, — would be dispersed ; 
and the scheme of Vienna, and Rome, utterly de 
feated ! 

And, finally, every sober-m_inded Christian now 
admits, without one solitary dissenting voice, that 
the Romish church is " Babylon the Great^ of 
St. John; and " The Man of Sin,'' of St. Paul 
Now, in no one of these predictions uttered from 
on high, by our Lord's servants, is one word ut- 
tered, or one expectation breathed, that this Great 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 43 

Apostate Power is ever to be reformed, or changed 
for the better. No ; he is to go on in his immuta- 
ble, and unfailing apostacy, crime, and blasphemy. 
Then he is to be " consumed with the spiiyt of our 
Lord's mouth ; and destroyed with the brightness 
of his coming." Hence, it is contrary to all his- 
torical fact, and all the holy revelations of her fu- 
ture fate, to imagine that popery is ever to be im- 
proved, or reformed. 

Hence, I beg leave to draw the attention of my 
reader to two inferences from this. 1. Every intelli- 
gent Protestant, and every Jesuit, cannot help smi- 
ling at the simplicity and awkwardness of the gra- 
tuitous excuses made by our half Protestants, on 
behalf of the Roman Catholics, " that they are 
unquestionably improved, and materially reformed 
in their views and feelings, from those of the Dark 
Ages, and even from those of the present day, in 
Europe ; and that they will be still more thorough- 
ly reformed, by mingling with our intelligent re- 
publican fellow-citizens." 

2. Hence we arrive at a conclusion, having an 
essential bearino- on our ars'ument. It is this : — 
Whatever in the course of our researches we shall 
prove to be held, at one time, as a dogma, or 
practice in the Romish church — that dogma, and 
that practice, it must be admitted, she still clings to, 
with all the pertinacity of one who will never sur- 
render her infallibility, and immutability, but with 
her existence. 

And I have one question to propose to our Amer- 
ican youth, in reference to those " Protestants," 
who cease not to plead the cause of this foreign 
party of Roman Catholics; and represent them 



44 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

as "about as good as any of their neighbours." 
The question is this: — Whether do these nominal 
Protestants render the foes of our country, and of 
our holy religion, more effectual service, hy re- 
maining in our cam'p, and acting as they do ; or 
by publicly going over to the enemy ? The an- 
swer, I think, is plain and obvious. 



CHAPTER II. 

Popery is a fatal enemy to eeligious liberty ; and is therefore 
a dangerous enemy to our Republican Institutions, 



Tiraeo Danaos et dona ferentes !" 

I fear the Jesuits, with all their plausibilities !' 



In our happy republic, true liberty is clearly dis- 
tinguished from licentiousness. Every citizen has 
his inalienable rights ; for instance, to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness in his own way. He 
is accountable to man, and under legal control, only 
so far as it is necessary to secure the general good 
of the community. But, in reference to the divine 
government, man, viewed as a religious and immor- 
tal being, is accountable to Almighty God alone. 
He only is lord of the human conscience. No man 
has a right to dictate to my conscience : I have no 
right to dictate to his. Church and state are two 
distinct things ; and ought for ever to be independ- 
ent of each other, in their respective policy. No 
prince, king, pope, or fanatic, has a right from God, 
or man, to make or impose a religious creed on 
any human being. Man's soul is not the property 
of man ; he is the property of God only, in body, 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 45 

soul, and conscience : he only is the judge of our 
souls ; he only has the right to dictate a religion to 
us. And, hence, every man is, and ever ought to 
be as free of all these fanatical and diabolical usur- 
pations on the human conscience, as is the wind on 
our mountains ; or the tide that rushes along our 
shores ! 

By the national and state constitutions, our reli- 
gious liberty is as carefully guarded, and secured 
to us, as is our civil liberty. Had this not been the 
case, we could have no rational claims to be a free 
people. The knave who would lord it over my 
conscience, and dictate a religious code, by force, 
on me, will also labour to rob me of my civil liberty, 
and all that man holds dear. 

That man, therefore, who infringes upon oar re- 
ligious liberty, is a conspirator against the rights 
of man, and is publicly aiming a blov/ at the exist- 
ence of our republican institutions. That man 
who, under any pretence whatever, supports, and 
patronises a religious creed, which necessarily tends 
to deprive the humblest citizen of his religious lib- 
erty, is to all intents and purposes, a conspirator 
against the liberties of this republic. And hence, 
that man w^hose rage for proselyting, and chain- 
ing his blind votaries to the car of his owti sect, 
prompts him to corrupt public morals, and brutal- 
ize the public mind, in order to perpetuate igno- 
rance, imbecility, and subjection, so that man can 
neither claim nor enjoy civil liberty, is the very 
pest of civil society, and a dangerous traitor to our 
country ! 

Now, 1st, we do charge on popery this necessary 
and fatal tendency. By one of its fundamental 



46 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

laws, it takes away from the people the very foun- 
tain of religious liberty. It absolutely prohibits 
the laity the free use of the Holy Bible ; or even 
access to it, without the haughty permission of a 
priest ! No fact stands out more prominently than 
this, in the history of popery. And the clamorous 
zeal of every priest, and his votaries, in denying 
it, argues the consciousness of its truth. It is 
painful to be compelled to notice this sheer hypoc- 
risy in denying one of their essential dogmas. 
But here is the decree of the Council of Trent ; 
Rule IV. of the ConDfreofation of the Index. " Cum 
experimento, &c. It is manifest from experience, 
that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar 
tongue, he indiscriminately allowed to every one, 
the rashness of men will cause more evil than good 
to arise from it.'''' Here I beg my reader to notice 
an imposture universally on the lips of the papists. 
They avow that they prohibit only " Protestant 
and heretical versions of the Bible." Whereas 
this decree of Trent positively prohibits the use of 
the Bible in any vernacular tongue of the people. 
Hence Pope Pius YIL, in 18 iff, in a bull, de- 
nounced the Bible Societies as '' a pestilence,^'' ''a 
crafty device,^^ " a defilement of the faith, most 
dangerous to souls.'''' See his Letter to the Arch- 
bishop of Gnezn. And Pope Leo XII. utters his 
curse against them in the most intemperate lan- 
guage. By this promiscuous distribution of the 
Bible to the people in their own tongue, says he, 
"the gospel of Christ is turned into a human 
gospel ; or what is worse, into the gospel of the 
devil P^ See his Circular Letter of 1824, pp. 16. 
54 — bl. Cramp, p. 60. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 47 

To the least reflecting, it must be very manifest 
that the religion of the pope's followers is as dif- 
ferent from the religion of the Bible, as is Islam- 
ism. In one point the system of Mohammed is 
superior to it, — I mean in the strict unity of the 
object of its worship ; — " There is one GodJ'' This 
is its first article : but popery has as many objects 
of worship as had the pagans of Greece and Rome. 
Popery is, strictly speaking, deism in its first and 
prominent article, which is this : — " The Bible is 
not the only rule of faith and morals.'''' It adores 
an infinity of ghostly idols, as Greece adored its 
heroic idols : the Virgin has more prayers and of- 
ferings made to her, than Christ. The atonement 
of Christ is displaced by the thing called the mass. 
Our Lord's intercession is displaced by that of the 
saints and saintesses ! In one word, it is the only 
perfect specimen of ancient perpetuated paganism. 
Every one of its articles, by which it differs from 
Protestantism, is, by sheer plagiarism, derived from 
the ancient pagans. I refer, for proof, to Middle- 
ton's Letter from Rome ; and my Letters in the 
R. C. Controversy, pp. 293, 130, 288, 280. 

This is the religious system imposed on the con- 
sciences of the papists, and enforced on them in all 
popish lands, by fire and sword, as in Spain, Italy, 
Naples, Austria, and wherever they have the ma- 
jority of numbers. Had it even been the true re- 
ligion of Jesus that was thus enforced, it would 
have been an outrage on reason, on man's honour, 
and on God's prerogative. How much greater is 
the outrage, to enforce on man's conscience, a sys- 
tem of sheer idolatry, and fanaticism, by the vio- 
lence of civil pains ! 



48 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

2d. The inventors of popery knew this much of 
human nature, that sound morality, and freedom of 
thought, were fatal to their system of ghostly des- 
potism. With the prostration of sound morals, 
they seek the destruction of man's religious free- 
dom. 

Hence, the fact revealed by the history of po- 
pery, that wherever it reigns, even the decency of 
morals, chastity, and holiness, are absolutely un- 
known, or laughed to scorn ! Every one of the 
ten precepts of God's law has been entirely set 
aside. I need not set down the proof of this, which 
I have exhibited in my Letters, p. 288, 289 : to 
which, for the sake of brevity, I beg to refer. 

This measure of revolting impurity, it fills up 
weekly, and daily, in the infamous scenes of the 
Confessional ; where the trodden down victim, is 
humbled before the priest ; and who, as a god, affects 
to dispense pardon; and as the high priest of Astarte, 
holds the most licentious discoursings ! No hu- 
man being can frequent the impure temple of the 
Confessional, Avithout being initiated into pollution, 
like the ancient females of Babylon ! Did our citi- 
zens only know even a tithe of the corruption of 
public morals continually going on, by the daily 
Confessional, every one of them would be forth- 
with indicted by our grand juries ! 

You ask for evidence. Hear the narrative of 
our travellers in Spain, Austria, Mexico, and the 
South ; but especially at the fountain head, — the 
pope's city, and the pope's court of holy cardinals, 
and holy priests ; and the pope's public licensed 
temples of Venus ! ! 

At the Confessional the priest has the whole 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 49 

torrent of the Dead Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
poured into his ears, and polluted imagination ! It 
is impossible that a priest that hears all the abomi- 
nations of all the five 'poinUjm our cities, poured 
on his ears, and soul, and heart, can be ever sup- 
posed to remain long a man of decent and passable 
morals! Causes must cease to produce their ne- 
cessary effects, if he can remain pure ! 

Then, only think of the victim of the priestly 
imposture. He has his sins pardoned " hy a judi- 
cial aci'' of the priest sitting in the seat of God, 
his judge. This pardon is settled by the tariff 
price of sins, laid down in the pope's chancery 
book. Thus the most atrocious sinners are sus- 
tained by a false peace ; and there is not only no 
reformation of morals, but a positive increase of 
vile appetite, and capacity for fresh crime, is con- 
tinually engendered in his soul. The confessional 
alon^-^, with the infamous questions there put to its 
victi.as, is enough to pollute, not only our youth, 
but even the worst class of all pagan criminals ! ! 
I need only refer to the morals of Paris, of Spain, 
of Vienna, of Ireland, and Rome. No country 
that is overwhelmed by the immorality of popery, 
either can achieve, or even enjoy civil liberty. The 
French Revolutionists never could be republicans. 
Mexico, and South America, never can be repub- 
lics, until purified of popery and crime. Hence, 
ignorance and immorality are the pillars of priest- 
craft, and the fatal enemies of our liberties. 

Popery, by its immoral tendency, dissolves the 
very bonds of civil society. True religion pro- 
motes order, peace, purity, and happiness, in ex- 
act proportion to the extent of its diffusion in a 









POPERY, THE EMEMY OF 

nation. Popery, on the contrary, spreads vice, 
disorder, crimes, and universal confusion, just in 
proportion to the extent of its influence. We need 
only appeal to facts. Compare Spain with Hol- 
land; Italy and Austria with England; Ireland 
with Scotland ; Mexico and Canada with the Uni- 
ted States. In all Protestant lands property is safe, 
and life is respected ; the law reigns. *' In Ireland," 
says Mr. Beresford, " the assassin walks out in 
noonday ; and murders are committed in cold blood, 
even before multitudes; and terrified juries dare 
not convict, as they would share the same fate." 
" Compare even Ireland with herself," says that 
native of Ireland, — " Ulster is nearly all Protes- 
tant ; Leinster, Connaught, and Munster, are almost 
entirely popish. In Ulster crime is rare ; the law 
takes its course ; life is safe. There are m.ore mur- 
ders in some of the single popish counties in one 
year, than there are in Protestant Ulster in five 
years ; notwithstanding this additional appalling 
fact, that in nineteen cases out of twenty, the crim- 
inals in Ulster are papists ! !" And over our own 
lai:d, crimes, mobs, and endless scenes of disorder, 
increase in every city, town, and village, in pro- 
portion as papists congregate and increase ! This 
fact is perfectly obvious to every American citizen. 
I have myself watched the progress of popery and 
crime for nearly the last thirty years, and have ob- 
served that the influx of popery is, to the most 
appalling degree, rapidly assimilating our morals 
to those of the papal districts of Europe ! 

There are, besides this, tivo principles of popery, 
which necessarily lead to dissolve even the bonds 
of civil society. The first is, " that 7io faith is to 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 51 

he kept with heretics.''^ It is true, both priest and 
lay papist are anxious to deny the existence of this 
dogma. The reason is obvious, — they are at pres- 
ent the minority. And it is one of those dogmas 
that are to be scrupulously carried into practice, 
only when they are the majority, and have the 
power. I beg to refer to the note of the Rhemish 
version of Matt. xiii. 6, for proof of this. This 
dogma has been enacted into a doctrine by popes, 
saints, and councils. I shall give a specimen of 
each. Gregory IX. in Decret. Greg. Lib. v. Tit. 7, 
enacted thus : — " Be it known to all who are under 
the dominion of heretics, that they are set free from 
every tie of fidelity and duty to them ; all oaths 
and solemn agreement to the contrary, notwith- 
standing." 

Pope Innocent VIII., in his bull for the extirpa- 
tion of the Vaudois, "commands persons of all 
classes and ranks, reverently to obey the apostolical 
orders, and to abstain from all commerce with the 
sdiidi heretics f^ — "that they who are bound by con- 
tracts, or in any other ^manner, to pay or assign 
any thing to the^Q heretics, are not, henceforth, obli- 
ged to do so, nor can they be, in anyway, compelled 
to do it." These bulls have never been revoked ; 
they are in full force as the common law of papal 
lands, to this day. I challenge all the bishops of 
the Roman Catholic church to produce a bull of 
the pope revoking them, or even disapproving of 
their spirit. 

St. Thomas Aquinas taught, "that a Catholic 
might deliver over a heretic to the judges, even 
although he had pledged his faith to him by an 
oath." See Bruce's Free Thoughts, &c. p. 119. 



52 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

The Council of Constance enacted this law in 
reference to the immortal Huss. " The emperor 
who gives him the safe conduct to come hither, 
shall not, in this case, he obliged to keep his prom- 
ise, by whatever tie he may be bound," &c. And 
they gave a flaming illustration of their meaning, 
by enacting that Huss, to whom the emperor's 
solemn faith and oath were given, for his safety to 
and from the Council, should be burned alive ! — 
And every one knows, that every priest " declares 
upon oath, without mental reservation, his faith in 
all the doctrines and canons of the chnrch." And 
he is sworn, also, " to make all under his care to 
believe, and do the same." 

The second is this : the pope, and his agents 
claim the prerogative to dispense with an oath, and 
absolve his subjects, the Roman Catholics, from 
every obligation of an oath. This dogma is also 
to be denied by every priest until Rome gains the 
power. But I declare that this is as solemnly an 
article of the Romish faith as is the doctrine of the 
mass. 

Pope Gregory VII., in a council at Rome, thus 
enacted, — " We, following the statutes of our pre- 
decessors, do, by our apostolic authority, absolve 
all those from their oath of fidelity, who are bound 
to excommunicated persorts, either by duty, or oath ; 
and we unloose them from every tie of obedience," 
&c. Decret. 2. part. caus. 15. quaest. 6. These 
laws were ratified by other three popes. See 
Bulla Corp. Juris Canon, prcefixa. And history 
informs us that no crowned head in Europe esca- 
ped the thunder of the Vatican, who rebelled against 
the pope. And in every extremity, the people were 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 53 

absolved from all allegiance to their rulers, and all 
obedience to the laws of the land. The atrocious 
tyrant, Pope Clement VII., in 1524, dispensed with 
the coronation oath of the emperor Charles V., by 
which he was solemnly bound to protect the Moors. 
And, in consequence of this, he compelled him to 
deliver up these miserable men, by millions, to the 
infernal inquisition ! See Geddes' works On popery, 
vol. i. p. 36—39. 

Now, this doctrine and practice are of the very 
essence of popery. It can never be annulled ex- 
cept where its votaries are not in power ; then, in 
that case, the law lies dormant until the season of 
opportunity arrives. For, it is an historical fact 
which no Jesuit can gainsay, that every Protes- 
tant, be he a magistrate, or a private citizen, is ex- 
communicated every year by the pope, at Rome. 
And the sentence is re-echoed by every priest, in 
every chapel, on Thursday before Good Friday. 
It is obvious, therefore, that every Protestant ma- 
gistrate is, by the laws of the Romish church, '*'an 
excommunicated heretic." In this • lig-ht eveiV 
priest, and every private conscientious papist, views 
every Protestant magistrate, whether in the State, or 
the General Government of the nation. For, says 
the Glossa of Lindewood, in Demoulis, p. 31, 
''Nam excommunicatus est diaboli memhrum — 
The excommunicated man is a member of the 
devil !" And no heretic can be a lawful ruler over 
the pope's subjects. Hence no oath that he can 
administer, is a lawful oath ; and no such oath is 
binding on them to tell the truth. Hence the no- 
torious maxim of the Jesuits, — " Jura, perjura, &c. 
— Swear and forswear, and deny the truth." And 
5* 



54 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

.hey are painfully consistent in carrying the prin- 
ciple into practice, just so far as interest prompts, 
and a well-timed respect for personal safety will 
permit them. 

This imjperium in imperio — this foreign papal 
power over men within our republic, claimed by 
one whose laws are paramount to all civil laws, is 
calculated to dissolve the very bonds of society, in 
every kingdom and republic. And it actually d:i 
so in King John's time, in England; and in Ger- 
many, in the time of Frederick II. It was only 
for want of power that it was not again effected in 
the days of Henry VIII. ; and again in the time of 
Glueen Elizabeth. And it is merely for want of 
the power, and not the want of the law, and the 
hearty good will, that it is not done in our own 
land, and in every Protestant country in Europe! 
The evidence of this is irresistible. The law has 
never been revoked ; and the dogma stands forth in 
their own Rhemish Bible, "that the good must 
tolerate the evil when it is too strong for them.'' 
Matt. xiii. 29, note. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 55 



CHAPTER III. 

The Roman Priests can never be true Republican citizens i 
Popery t the uncompromising enemy of popular education. 



Hail ! holy darkness, parent of our church I' 



3d. The Romish priesthood are, as a body, 
utterly disqualified, by their very office, to become 
republican citizens. This I shall notice more fully 
in Part II. I simply remark, that they are bound 
by the only oath which they will honour, to the 
only sovereign which they can, in conscience, re- 
cognise, as claiming imperiously the homage of 
their fidelity. That sovereign is the pope: that 
oath is administered by the servants of his legiti- 
mate sovereign ; and this supersedes all other oaths, 
and all other allegiance. Hence the whole soul, 
mind, heart, and feelings of the Romish priesthood, 
are utterly, and for ever, alienated from our repub- 
lic, and free institutions. 

The priests' oath contains this clause : — ** Omnia 
a sacris, &c. — All things defined by the canons, 
and general councils, and especially by the synod 
of Trent," [and these have declared the pope their 
absolute sovereign in temporals, and spirituals,] 
*' I undoubtedly receive, and profess ; and all things 
contrary to them, 1 reject, and curse," &c.— " And, 
this Catholic faith I will teach and enforce on my 
dependants and flock." See Bulla P. Pii. IV. — 
The popish bishop's oath begins thus : — '* Ego ab 
hac hora, &c. — I from this hour will be faithful 
and obedient to my Lord, the pope," &c. And he is 
as much a temporal prince, as a spiritual. And 



66 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

this is the closing sentence : — " To the utmost of 
my power, I will observe the pope's commands," — 
temporal, of course, and spiritual, for so the pope 
explains his own oath, — "and I will make 
OTHERS OBSERVE THEM : and I will impugn and 
persecute all heretics, and all rebels, to my Lord, 
the pope." Bee Porttif. Roma7i. De consec. elect, 
in Episcop. p. 57. 

As members of this spiritual household, under 
the absolute crown of the pope, these vassals of a 
foreign despot look upon all civil rulers as their 
inferiors and servants. It would seem really incred- 
ible to any man who has not examined the Latin 
pages of the decretals, and popish doctors, how 
haughty and insolent these priestly claims have been, 
and still are. Here is a specimen. — Taberna, vol. 
ii. p. 288, says, " A priest cannot be forced to give 
testimony before a secular judge." JEmmajiuel Sa, 
in Aphor. p. 41, affirms, "that the rebellion of 
priests is not treason, for they are not subject to the 
civil government." Bellarmine, Controv. lib. v. cap. 
6. p. 1090, teaches — "that the spiritual power must 
rule the temporal, by all means and expedients, 
when necessary." But the most sublime claim set 
up, is that which is stated in Stanislaus Ozichori- 
us, in his ChimcEra, folio 99. "A common priest 
is as much better than a king, as a man is better 
than a beast : nay, as much, as God Almighty ex- 
cels a priest, so much does a priest excel a king" 
or supreme magistrate. " He who prefers a king 
(or chief magistrate) to a priest, does prefer the 
creature to the Creator !" See Demoulin, p. 19, and 
Morn. Exer. on Popery, p. 67. • 

And how admirably this haughty insolence is 
displayed at their engine of despotism, — the ^^^y 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 57 

fessional ! In popish lands, kings, princes, nobles ; 
rich, and poor : man, woman, and child, must kneel 
in the dust at the insolent priest's feet ! Every Ro- 
man Catholic does homage to this lieutenant of their 
Dominus deus, noster papa, the lord god, the pope ! 
No laws of man are paramount to the law of this 
priest, residing at Rome; no patriotism, no zeal 
for his native, or adopted country, can possibly 
move him to obey human laws, at the expense of this 
ghostly despot's laws ! Whenever his country's 
claims come in collision with his spiritual sovereign, 
the pope's claims, he must promptly obey the latter, on 
the pains and penalty of the mortal sin of perj ary ! 
Can such men ever be good citizens, or republicans ?■ 
Then, I beg my fellow-citizens carefully to ob- 
serve how this foreign power, and tyranny, are 
organized. The pope, at Rome, regulates all his 
" Catholic subjects''^ by his word of command. The 
papists are the pope's army, at quarters, in the land; 
the priests are his officers ; the bishops, his gene- 
rals; the vicars, his ghostly colonels ; the arch- 
bishops, his major generals ! The pope claims to 
hold in fee simple, all church property here. The 
bishops, by Dr. England, their mouth-piece, have 
publicly advocated this. The more zealous repub- 
lican laymen fiercely deny it. There has been a 
hot and protracted debate in this matter, between 
the priests and laymen, who insist on having lay 
trustees. A solemn deputation is now gone to 
Rome, to have this settled; together with other 
delicate points, which no law of any "heretical 
republic" can possibly settle ! And none but their 
own lawful, native, and legitimate prince, the pope, 
can settle these temporal matters, and other things 
touching certain priests in our city ! 



58 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

The pope appoints all the bishops, by his sove- 
reign decree ; and without consulting the will, or 
even the wish of the j)eople. And he has actually- 
sent over his own creatures, lordly and aristocrati- 
cal in their manners. The bishops appoint all the 
priests to each of their chapels, without deigning 
to consult the people's choice. And the priest, in 
his turn, lords it over every soul in the chapel, as 
a most skilful lieutenant of his Holiness^ s viceroy. 
Men may palliate this as they can. But it requires 
little reflection to perceive that this is worse than 
Austrian, or Russian despotism. The latter lord 
it over the body, property, and liberty. But the 
former lords it over men's bodies, and property, and 
liberty, and souls, and conscie7ices ! Can any man 
soberly believe that these persons would obey our 
laws and government, in opposition to the simple 
word, or even the nod of their master, the pope \ 
Can any grave politician, imagine that men, thus 
mutuall}^ in their turn, tyrants and vassals, can 
ever be honest citizens, and sound republicans? 

I am fully aware that every Jesuit, and every 
half Protestant, affect to believe that no papist ad- 
mits the pope's temporal power in the United 
States. Of course, as it may well be supposed ; 
every criminal pleads not guilty to every charge, 
even the most manifestly evident one ! But every 
man who knows popery as it is in the pope's books, 
and as it has been displayed in practice, on the faith- 
ful page of history, is fully aware that this is all 
idle rant, put forth merely for effect, to lull our 
jealous suspicions asleep. 

The fact is this : the pope has been a temporal 
prince since the year 756: he wears the triple 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 59 

crown, surmounted by the cross, the emblem un- 
blushingly held out, of the temporal power in sub- 
ordination to the spiritual. He has declared him- 
self (i(? 7712/12^.5 ^o^i2/.5 orhis — the lord of all the glohe. 
He never has surrendered this bright gem in his 
crown. If he has, show us the bull ; and confess 
his infallihility, now made fallible. If he has 
given a dispensation to our Roman Catholic fellow- 
citizens to deny his temporal authority, show us the 
bull, and we shall instantly do you justice ; and 
confess that the papal claims of the Dark Ages, 
are quite modernized, and rational ! 

Yet, to be serious, I shall even admit your creed, 
that the pope claims no temporal power : that he is 
simply invested with spiritual power, as the head of 
the Christian church, in "the capital of the Chris- 
tian world." Does this mend the matter? If pos- 
sible, it makes it even worse. You give the pope, 
and his government, your soal, and your heart : 
you ^;jive our republic, your bodies and mere pres- 
ence. Why, this is all that the despot can claim, 
until he obtains the majority in numbers, and 
secures the power. This is all he wants. Only 
let a despot, at the head of a foreign government, 
have the spiritual — that means the most potent and 
unbounded power over the souls and consciences of 
credulous men ; only let them be gulled into a 
belief that their foreisfn sovereis^n is a God on the 
EARTH, and can forgive their sins, and open the 
only pathway through purgatory, into heaven, at 
a very reasonable compensation ; and, depend upon 
it, you give that despot an absolute and unbounded 
power over the bodies, property, and allegiance of 
all the|papists in our republic ! Popery is a ter- 



60 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

rific weapon, to strike a terrific blow on us ; and 
the hilt of it is at Rome ! 

4. Popery is the uncompromising enemy of 
POPULAR EDUCATION. There is, perhaps, no one 
point, along" the whole line of assault, between 
protestant and papist, which the untiring spirit of 
Jesuitism labours more to fortify than their citadel 
of darkness and ignorance. They seem to take no 
pains to conceal their convictions, that if popular 
EDUCATION be admitted universally among their 
people, they are ruined beyond the hope of remedy. 
Nothing can be more evident. Only illumine a 
people by religion and science, and you scatter de- 
lusion, and effectually crush priestcraft and tyranny, 
in church, and in state. Knowledge is strength. 
Create an intelligent people, under the holy labours 
of the schoolmaster, and the minister of a pure re- 
ligion, and you put into motion an irresistible en- 
gine, which crushes, and sweeps away, as by a 
whirlwind, the Schlegels,dLU.d the Metterniches, and 
the Hildebrands, together with all the infernal 
works of darkness — the horrid accumulation of a 
thousand years ! Well do the political and ghostly 
tyrants of Europe, and their emissaries among us, 
know all this. And the utmost pains have been 
taken to prevent the spread of knowledge. No 
one maxim is more current among the well disci- 
plined troops of Rome, and Austria, than this, — 
^'Ignorance is the mother of devotion, and order P^ 
By devotion they do not mean the pure and ele- 
vated piety of the enlightened Christian. By 
order, in the political sense, they do not mean that 
beautiful spectacle of a moral and well educated 
people, yielding the supremacy of the public mind 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 61 

in an exact obedience to righteous laws. Devotion, 
in their vocabulary, means, simply that absolute 
slavery of heart and soul to papal doctrines, and 
rites, which is found in the simple and sentimental 
devotee, the lean and lank fanatic, and in " fat con- 
tented ignorance," which performs its labour of 
thinking and praying, all entirely by proxy. Or, 
it means, "that mechanical piety," as Archbishop 
Carrol judiciously called it, "without which," said 
he, moreover, "there would not be left one soli- 
tary spark of religion in the Roman Catholic 
church." By order, they mean that revolting state 
of mental and bodily slavery exhibited around the 
conqueror's car, and throne, where liberty is extin- 
guished ; and men move on as automata, under the 
goading of the bayonet, and the scourge of the 
priest ! Hence it is essentially necessary to priest- 
craft, and despotism, that the devoted victims should 
live in darkness, and move in darkness, and have 
their being wholly in darkness ! 

Popery is, therefore, from strict principle, an 
immoveable enemy to popular education. The 
priest trembles at the approach of the schoolmaster. 
He has the same emotions of terror, in view of him, 
which the pirate feels, who sees the light of day, 
and the officers of justice bursting in suddenly upon 
his crimes, his revelry, and mangled victims ! The 
canons of popery proclaim a war of extermination 
against the schoolmaster, w^herever he appears 
abroad. I call on my reader to cast his eyes over 
all popish lands ; and look at the painful evidence 
of this fact. The great mass of the people in all 
these lands, are universally ignorant, degraded, and 
brutalized. Let any w^ell read man contrast the 
6 



62 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Spaniard, with the Hollander ; the Irish Catholic, 
with the Irish and Scottish protestant ; the Mex- 
ican, with the American citizen ; the New Eng- 
lander, with the Canadian. The countries of the last 
two mentioned were settled nearly about the same 
time ; and there was no j)h]/sical cause operating to 
prevent the progress of Canada from keeping pace 
with that of New-England, in morals, religion, and 
literature. But, here we have a painful and most 
instructive fact — New-England was Protestant ; 
Canada was Roman Catholic. Here was a fair 
and favourable trial of the influence of each, — even 
the Roman Catholic priests themselves being 
judges. For New-England was under the influ- 
ence of the stern old puritans : Canada under the 
influence, not of the barbarous Austrian, nor of the 
wild Irish Catholics, but of the more liberal French 
Catholic. Now, what is the fact of their present 
relative progress in morals and literature ? The 
people of New-England stand foremost among a 
most enlightened nation. The papists of Canada 
linger on the verge of the Darkest Ages — one fact 
shall prove it. A petition was lately sent to the 
British Parliament, signed by 88,000 persons of 
Canada. Of these, about 78,000 could not tcrite 
their names ; they appended their cross as their 
mark ! And of the rest, say 10,000, a great pro- 
portion could simply write and read their own 
names only! 

Who ever heard of parochial schools in Spain, 
or in Austria ? These are the glory of Protestant 
Europe alone. Who ever heard of public schools 
in Roman Catholic Mexico, or South America ? 
These are the glory of Protestant America. And 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 63 

where is the patriot in the South, that dares come 
forward and establish them ? Let my fellow-citizens 
note it well. If any daring Washington come 
forward, there, and venture on the holy enterprise, 
it will be seen, that if the priests cannot, by threat- 
enings, defeat him — the assassin's poniard will ! 

In Ireland, the whole weight of the popish priest- 
hood is pitted against every benevolent effort, — and 
even against the national government itself, — to 
defeat, and prevent every attempt to educate the Avild 
Irish to read and write ! 

And, even in New- York, the popish priests use 
their utmost efforts to prevent the children of their 
people from availing themselves of the glorious 
facilities of our state, to educate themselves, gratu- 
itously and thoroughly, in our public schools ! If 
they accept the boon, it must be on a sectarian 
principle ; and under the dictation of priestcraft, if 
practicable ! 

Another melancholy proof of the hostility of 
popery to popular education, is displayed in 
the rules of the Indexes Expurgatory, and Pro- 
hibitory. These Indexes I have examined ; and I 
find, in some instances, certain portions, — in other 
instances, the whole, of the most valuable books, 
prohibited, as well as the Holy Bible. Yes, the ' 
Holy Scriptures, and the standard English works 
on theology, and moral philosophy, and in poetry, 
are condemned and prohibited books ! And no true 
Roman Catholic may dare to have these w^orks in 
his house, or read them, without a written license 
from the spiritual keeper of his conscience. The 
following are among the proscribed: — Addison, 
Algernon Sydney, Lord Bacon, George Buchanan, 



64 POPERY, TKE ENEMY OF 

Sir Mathew Hale, John Locke, Milton, Mosheim, 
Robertson's Histories, Roscoe, Cowper, Young, 
Walton's Polyglott, Usher, Jeremy Taylor, and all 
the worthies of the Presbyterian, and Episcopal 
churches ! See Cramp's Text Book, p. 376. And 
here I shall subjoin the Canon of the Council of 
Trent, De Libris prohibitis, Regula 10 : "Finally, 
it is enjoined on all the faithful, that no one pre- 
sume to keep, or to read, any books contrary to 
these rules; or prohibited by these Indexes." — 
*' And if any shall do so, he incurs the sentence of 
excommunication." For, "it is a mortal sinP 

And if our literary and professional men will 
only turn their attention to the literary attainments 
of the Romish priesthood ; and to the real merits 
of the popish schools, and colleges, in our land, 
they will discover, without much effort, that priests, 
and ladies superior, and even their bishops, and 
professors, are, at least, one hundred years behind 
the Protestant ministers, teachers, and colleges, in 
point of literary and scientific acquirements. In 
every department of the higher branches of liter- 
ature, Roman Catholic countries, are centuries be- 
hind the brilliant progress of Protestant countries. 
This is confirmed by the united testimony of every 
► traveller who chooses to speak out. Nay, the cata- 
logues of British and American booksellers, com- 
pared with those of a Vienna, Madrid, or Rome 
bookseller, exhibits an overwhelming proof of this. 
So late as 1633, Pope Urban, and his learned in- 
quisitors, condemned the philosophy of the immor- 
tal Galileo, in the following words : 

" 1st. The proposition that the sun is the centre 
of the world, and immoveable from its place, is 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 65 

absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; 
because expressly contrary to the holy Scriptures. 
2d. The proposition that the earth is not the centre 
of the world, nor immoveable ; but that it moves, 
and also has a diurnal motion, is also absurd, phil- 
osophically false, and theologically considered, at 
least, erroneous in faith." See the Life of Galileo, 
published at Boston, 1832, pp. 179, 180. 

Being- found guilty of teaching this dangerous 
doctrine of modern astronomy, he was left to his 
choice, to recant, and so make the sun roll round 
the earth, or, to go to the dungeon, and thence to 
the stake. The venerable philosopher was not so 
full of zeal as to become a martyr to the first ele- 
ments of astronomy. Leaving the honours of sci- 
ence to be cleared up by other men, and in happier 
times, he threw himself on his knees, and recanted 
in the best way he could, before the pope's elite of 
literary men ! But, such is the force of science on 
a scholar's conscience — as he raised himself slowly 
from his knees, Galileo muttered in the ear of a 
friend, — ""But the earth moves yet, though f^ 

So late as 1703, this modern astronomy was sol- 
emnly condemned as "unphilosophical, and heret- 
ical." Since that time, no public notice has been 
taken of it. It has been simply allowed to drop 
into neglect. But Galileo's sentence has never 
been reversed to this day ; and the modern astron- 
omy has never received any countenance of public 
approbation from pope, or inquisitor, officially. 
The fact is, papal infallibility was fairly committed. 
And Galileo, and modern astronomy, must stand 
condemned for ever ; or papal infallibility will be 
sacrificed before heretics ! 



66 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

The following extract from Doblado's Letters 
from Spairif -p. 109 — 111, throws much light on 
the influence of popery on popular education. " To 
expect a rational education, where the inquisition is 
constantly on the watch to keep the human mind 
within the boundaries which the church of Rome, 
with her host of divines, has set to its progress, 
would show a perfect ignorance of the character of 
our religion. Thanks to the league between our 
church, and state, the Catholic divines have nearly 
succeeded in keeping down knowledge to their own 
level. Even such branches of science as seem 
least connected with religion, cannot escape the the- 
ological rod. And the spirit which made Galileo 
recant, upon his knees, his discoveries in astronomy, 
still compels our professors to teach the Coperni- 
can system, as an hypothesis. The truth is, that 
with Catholic divines, no one pursuit of the mind 
is independent of religion. Astronomy must ask the 
inquisitor to see with her own eyes : geography 
was long compelled to shrink from them. Divines 
were made the judges of Columbus's discovery ; 
as well as to allot a species to the native Amer- 
icans. A spectre monk haunts the geologist in the 
lowest cavities of the earth ; and one of flesh and 
blood watches the philosopher on its surface. An- 
atomy is suspected, and watched closely, whenever 
it takes up the scalpel ; and medicine had many a 
pang to endure, while endeavouring to expunge the 
use of baric, and inoculation, from the dark cata- 
logue of mortal sins ! You must not only believe 
what the inquisition believes, but yield implici 
faith to the theories, and explanations, of her di 
vines !" 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 67 



CHAPTER IV. 

TTie popish priesthood wields a tremendous power over its vie 
tints, by its doctrine of Intention : — by the Confessional ; — 
by its claim of power to damn men : — and by its lucrative 
fiction of Purgatory, which is a species of luife Insurance 
against hell fir el 



Auri sacra fames ! Accursed lust of gold I— Virg. 



The minds of their victims being thus subjuga- 
ted, and utterly paralyzed, by the too successful 
efforts of priestcraft to prevent popular education, 
they became, thence, the easy prey of every im- 
posture of popery. I now observe: 

5thly. By the doctrine of intention, the Ro- 
mish priesthood wields a tremendous despotism over 
the human mind. It puts in claims over man, su- 
perior to those of all human laws. It is surpassed 
by no pagan, or Mohammedan claim on human 
credulity. It has no parallel, saving in the mons- 
trous usurpations of Brahminism. It is thus set 
forth in the decree of the Council of Trent ; session 
VII. De sacr. in genere ; Canon XL *' Si quis, 
dixerit, &c. — If any one shall affirm, that when 
ministers perform, and confer a sacrament, it is not 
necessary that they should, at least, have the inten- 
tion to do that which the church does, — let him 
be accursed." I beg to subjoin, also, the words 
of the Trent Catechism, as they throw a singular 
light on the reason of this unparalleled dogma of 
Rome : — " Representing, as he does in his sacred 
function, not his own, but the person of Christ, the 
minister of the sacraments, be he good or bad, val- 
idly consecrates and confers the sacraments, provi- 



68 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

ded he make use of the matter, and form, instituted 
by Christ, and also observed in the Catholic church, 
and INTENDS to do what the church does," &c. p. 
150. Cramp. 416. 

Now, let any one soberly reflect on this power, 
lodged by the church of Rome, in the priests' 
hands, over her victims ; and let him go over each 
of their seven popish sacraments, and he cannot fail 
to see what a tremendous instrument of despotism 
he wields over the souls, and bodies of his flock. 
The maniac impostures of the fanatic may excite 
laughter, among a people too enlightened to be cor- 
rupted by him. But when he succeeds in impos- 
ing upon millions, and in ruining whole king- 
doms, his impostures excite the deepest sorrow, and 
commiseration; as we weep over the miserable 
vagaries and frailties of human nature ! 

A wretched priest is called in, to confer 
the grace of baptism, — an article, by the way, 
which he makes no grave pretensions, himself, to 
possess, either genuine, or even couiiterfeit ! Well, 
if by chance, or out of mischievous design, he wants 
THE INTENTION iu soul and conscience, to do that 
which mother church does by it, then, alas ! the 
unhappy victim of the craft is still in his sins, by 
the mistake, or the mischief of his priest ! 

A whole popish vicinity are assembled to receive 
the mass. This is the whole of a Roman Catholic's 
religion. It is the total amount of his faith, and 
morals, and decent habits. It is the sublime sub- 
stitute for them all ! Divine homage to the mass, 
and bodily prostration to the eternally eaten, and 
eternally new created tvafer god, are the most per- 
fect substitute for temperance, and charity, and bro- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 69 

therly love, and patriotism, and all the virtues, and 
all the graces ! Hence, it is of infinite importance 
that the thing be well done, when it is done. Now, 
if the INTENTION be wanting by some melancholy 
accident, of which a whole chapter is laid down in 
the pope's hihle, called the Missal, or by the mis- 
chief of an unfriendly priest, then, as every soul of 
the faithful is told by the pope, and the Trent Coun- 
cil, to believe, the sacred wafer is not " the body, 
and blood, soul, and divinity of Christ." And, 
hence, O ! melancholy and fatal mishap, when they 
all bow down and adore the wafer god, — that, alas ! 
through the wicked priests' want of the inten- 
tion, being still but a wafer, — and really not a 
god, the whole assembly — the whole vicinity, even 
to a man — priest and all — by their own admission, 
are under the damning sin of idolatry, which is a 
mortal sin! And all this appalling mischief is 
continually in the power of an unprincipled priest, 
who can thus wantonly send a whole parish to the 
bottomless pit, — or, purgatory, at least, according to 
the grave admission of every papist ! ! 

A young couple apply to the priest to be united 
by " the grace of the matrimonial sacrament." 
Here is a threefold danger of a miscarriage, and 
of getting involved in mortal sin, according to 
Popery. Three distinct intentions of three 
persons are indispensable, nay essential to the mar- 
riage — namely, that of the priest, that of the groom, 
that of the bride. " For," says the Trent canon, 
"the receiver's intention, is as necessary as 
that of the priest!" I refer in proof of this to the 
Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, p. 76. New 
York, 1833. 



70 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Here the priest has it in his power to withhold 
the intention; thence "the grace of the sacra- 
ment of matrimony" is not conveyed. Hence the 
victims of the priest are not married ; but are liv- 
ing, all their days, and finally die, in a mortal sin ! 
But this is not all the mischief The priest teaches 
the man and the woman that their intention is 
essential to the formation of their marriage union. 
If this can be shown to be awantino- ; or if either 
party chooses to declare, in court, upon oath, that 
they really had no intention of marrying, when 
they stood before the priest, the Roman law dis- 
solves their union. Many a divorce, says Bishop 
Burnet, has he known sued out at Rome, on this 
infamous allegation ! 

The dying Roman Catholic receives the sacra- 
ment of penance and extreme unction. He has a 
perfect assurance, just in proportion to the flaming 
zeal of his popery, that his priest " can confer 
grace" to his departing soul, whatever may have 
been the revolting immorality, and the atrocious 
crimes of his past life ; or that the priest can with- 
hold grace from him, just as he chooses to have, 
or not to have the intention ! As a genuine Pa- 
pist, he solemnly believes, if he believes any thing, 
that he is, soul and body, entirely in the priest's 
hands, and entirely at his mercy, for time, and for 
eternity ! He feels himself on the brink of an aw- 
ful change ! His priest can, by his intention, 
send him to heaven, or to purgatory ; or, by his 
want of INTENTION, to hell, without remedy for 
ever ! Can any power, or any influence on earth, be 
conceived paramount, or even equal to this power 
of a priest ! The claims of God Almighty, his 



I 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 71 

prerogatives, and his awful judgment to come, 
seem merged and lost in the Roman Catholic's 
god on earth, uttering his sentence from his throne 
of imposture ! At the priest's feet every Papist is 
chained down in most abject vassalage; heart, 
head, soul, body, — all are at his dictation ; none 
of these can the priest-ridden slave truly call 
his own ! Heaven is at his disposal ; and it is 
his, if he can only please him, and bribe him ! 
Hell follows his ano-er and revenue ! And he is 
lost, if he die under the curse of the priest ! — Such 
is the power of modern priestcraft, over the dark 
chaotic soul and heart of the Papist, by his free 
choice ! 

6th. The Confessional is another potent in- 
strument by which this power is consolidated and 
perpetuated. 

What a contrast is there between the follow^er 
of Christ, and the disciples of the Italian Pope ! 
The Christian betakes himself into his closet ; and, 
there, throwing himself, with the tears of penitence, 
and deep humility, at the foot of the throne of grace, 
he confesses unto God alone ; and obtains pardon, 
and peace, through the blood of Jesus. God is his 
confessor; into his merciful ears alone does he 
sincerely pour forth all his sins and sorrows: 
Christ grants him absolution, *' without money, 
and without price ;" while the Holy Spirit conveys 
into his wounded conscience, an exhilarating, 
pure, and abiding joy. But the Papist turns away 
from God's throne of grace, to the confessional 
of a human and unprincipled dictator ! He con- 
fesses, — ^not directly to Almighty God, but to a 
priest! He obtains absolution, — but not from 



72 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Christ; he is pardoned by the priest, — not by the 
court of heaven. He obtains a placid self-compla- 
cency from his having pleased his ghostly father ; 
and settled all the church's dues ! He is too 
clearly and irretrievably involved in "the snare 
of the fowler," to see through the arts of the ghost- 
ly trafficker in the souls of men; who, with all the 
deep solemnity, and perfect earnestness of a man 
pursuing a godly and profitable business, pro- 
nounces his absolution from all sins, and receives 
the wages of the deed, and hurries away to the 
demolition of fresh victims! Nay, such is the 
amazing force of a false religion, on the minds of 
men, that even while their deceiver is ready to be 
convulsed with laughter, and his ill-adjusted mask 
is ready to drop off, before his very eyes, he clings 
to his fond delusion ; and strangely chooses to be- 
lieve " The lie,^'' in opposition to the remonstrances 
of friends, and the very evidence of his senses ! 

And this fearful mockery of the divine preroga- 
tives, is enhanced by the fact, that the Popish 
priest does not profess merely to pronounce abso- 
lution over man, only when he is penitent before 
God. He arrogates the function of pronouncing 
the pardon of sin by a formal judicial act. Some 
affect to represent this function as a mere dxclara- 
tion on the part of the priest, that God pardons the 
sin upon man's penitence. The highest authori- 
ty in Rome, the Trent Council, has pronounced it 
to be not "a bare declaration that sin is pardoned 
by God to the penitent; but ad instar actus judi- 
cialis, &c., really a judicial act of the priest sitting 
on the judgment seat, representing Christ, and 
doing what Christ does." And this doctrine the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 73 

fathers of Trent seal with the usual anathema; 
inasmuch as they pronounce the man accursed, 
who shall even gainsay it ! See Session XIV. chap, 
vi. And the Trent Catechism, p. 260. Cramp, 
195, and 427. 

Now, what, I pray you, is the effect of all this 
on the mind of our Roman Catholic population ? 
It crushes it to the dust. Conscious that the priest 
knows his secret thoughts, and heart, and all his 
propensities, and his weaknesses, and his crimes, 
the Papist no longer feels himself a man ! This 
spiritual master he cannot look in the face ! He 
cannot assert his natural rights, and his honour, 
as a man, in his presence! He is abashed and 
confounded before the haughty and impudent 
usurper, as any miserable pagan is before his idol 
god ! His labour, his property, his wife, his chil- 
dren, his body, his soul,, are all at the priest's dis- 
posal ! He crouches at the priest's feet with ab- 
ject submission. He dares not complain of his 
wrongs ! Wo is unto him if he does. Though 
he is cuffed, and kicked, and even lashed by the 
priest's whip, and beaten as a child, as is done 
habitually in Ireland, he does not, and he dares 
not resist. "What, Sir!" exclaimed a stout Irish 
labourer to Mr. D. in the village of Saugerties, 
N. Y., when he was asked why he did not resist, 
and defend himself against his brutal priest, who 
had publicly boxed him, until his face was covered 
with blood, — " What, Si?' ! strike a holy praste ! 
What a wickedness I Sir, had I touched the holy 
fraste, mine own arm would have withered from 
my shoulder-blade !" 

And every time the unhappy victim of priest- 
7 



74 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

craft finds himself at the confessional, and purchas- 
ing his absolution by "offerings" to propitiate his 
master, he finds these chains of slavery tightened, 
and riveted more and more closely. He would 
sink in despair under his intolerable yoke of bon- 
dage, were it not for this, — ^that he never tasted 
the liberty of the true Christian, nor felt the noble 
swellings of a freeman's soul ! Besides, he com- 
forts himself that like all others of his religion, he 
is working out his salvation by the salutary pains 
and inflictions of despotism ! The cuffs and kicks 
of his priest help him to climb up the narrow way 
to heaven ! 

7th. This fatal vassalage is sustained, farther, 
by the terrific claim gravely put forth, over men's 
souls, by pope, bishop, and priest, " to damn the 
souls of all refractory and rebellious 7nen /" 

It is highly instructive, if not amusing, to see 
with what imperturbable gravity the Jesuit priests 
among us affect to deny this ; and with what per- 
fect incredulity the half Protestant smiles at the 
mere enunciation of this proposition. They even 
deem it slander in one who happens to be some- 
what better read than they are, to set forth this 
veritable, yet shocking dogma of Popery ! 

It requires but a small knowledge of Popish 
decrees, and of civil and church history, to see the 
manifest truth, that Popish prelates have, for a 
thousand years, claimed this terrific prerogative. 
Why, they rear it on the first element of the sys- 
tem. Every priest represents the bishop; and 
every bishop represents the Pope : and the Pope 
is " Filii Dei Vicarius, — the Vicar of the Son of 
God upon earth.^^ Hence, whatever Christ does, 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 75 

that does the Pope, or his vicars. This doctrine is 
unequivocally laid down by the Council of Trent, 
in their Catechism, p. 260, — " In the minister of 
God, who sits in the tribunal of Penance, as his 
legitimate judge, the penitent venerates the power 
and 'person of our Lord Jesus Christ : for in the 
administration of this, as in that of the other 
sacraments, the priest represents the character, 
and discharges the functions of Jesus Christ}^ 

The creed of Pope Pius, which every Roman 
Catholic admits to be of the highest authority in 
his church, has also pronounced the sentence of 
dam.nation on all of us. "- This is the true Catho- 
lic faith, out of which there is no possibility of sal- 
vation." Canon, et Decret. Concil. Trid. Appen- 
dix, p. xxii. See Cramp, p. 451. 

In accordance with this doctrine of Popery, has 
been the practice of Popes to utter their bulls of 
excommunication ; and these included the exclu- 
sion of heretics from heaven, as well as from the 
church on earth. Let any one look into these 
bulls, and he will at once perceive the truth of 
this. The bull against Henry VIII. is, — "the ex- 
communication and damnation of Henry." The 
bull against Queen Elizabeth is — " The excom- 
munication and damnation of the Queen," &c. 

To the same infamous class of doctrines belongs 
that which she teaches respecting infants that have 
not been baptized by her. *' Whither go infants 
that die without baptism ? Ans. To that part of 
hell where they suffer the pains of loss; but not 
the punishment of sense ; and shall never see the 
face of God P^ Abridgment of Christian Doc- 
trine. New York edition, p. 109. But this in- 



76 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

fantine perdition can be completely prevented in 
the easiest manner possible, by the priest's enacting 
his baptism on the infant, or any lay substitute, 
male or female, at his bidding, doing the same, in 
his absence ! Even heretics baptize correctly. 

Now, is it supposable that a people who look 
up to a priest, armed with the power of damning 
men, women, and infants, at his will ; and who 
believe, as every true Papist does believe, that he 
really possesses, and actually exercises such a 
power, can ever be disposed to resist the despot's 
will ; or can ever have a heart to vindicate its na- 
tural rights and liberties ? And, moreover, is it to be 
wondered at, that, even in our own happy republic, 
a wretched priest should actually have unspeakably 
more power over the Roman Catholic population 
than any one, or all, of our magistrates, though 
backed with the police, and sustained by a troop 
of soldiers ? And tell me, fellow-citizens, can lib- 
erty, can republican principles flourish, or even 
exist in a land where such villanous principles are 
tolerated openly, and unblushingly taught and prac- 
tised? 

8th. The Purgatory of the Papists is another 
tremendous instrument of this ghostly despotism. 
The rise and progress of this lucrative dogma of 
popery we have traced in another book.* The 
only wonder attending it is, that it was so late in 
its invention ! The utmost efforts of the fabricators 
of novel opinions, and legend-mongers, could not 
succeed in getting purgatory enacted into a regu- 
lar dogma and article of faith, before the Council 

* Letters in the N. Y. Roman Catholic controversy, p. 249. 
250. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 77 

of Florence, iu 1430. But that wonder will cease, 
if we only reflect that it required all the ignorance 
and infidelity of all the Dark Ages, sufficiently to 
prepare the brutalized mind of the men of those 
days to receive, or even to listen, with any degree 
of gravity, to the fiction of purgatory, so manifest- 
ly stolen from the Pagan religion ! 

It was the Council of Florence that pronounced 
the dogma " that saints go to heaven ; sinners to 
hell; and the middling class to purgatory." Lab- 
bei Concil. Tom. xviii. p. 503 ; and Tom. xx. p. 
170. In this "middling class," the priests art- 
fully contrive to include almost all men. They 
had two sufficient arguments for this: — 1st. It is 
quite manifest that but very few Papists can die 
saints. 2d. It would cause the loss of immense 
wealth to send all sinners, small, as well as great, 
to hell. It is exceedingly convenient for an im- 
moral man to have the comfortable persuasion that 
he may take all the pleasures -which the world, 
the flesh, and the devil, can administer to him, 
while he lives ; and can, nevertheless, have at last, for 
a portion of what he cannot take with him at any 
rate, a secure house in Paradise, in fee simple for 
ever! " It would be too bad," said Bishop Eng- 
land, in his discourse on this favourite topic, " to 
send men to hell for telling small or venial lies ? 
or for doing small sins; and, then, they are not 
ripe for heaven ! Therefore, we put them into 
purgatory." 

" Well, be it so," a child might say, " but the 
blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all our sins, small 
and great. Thus the dying thief on the cross 
7* 



78 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

was cleansed from all his sins : you had better refer 
them to the blood of Christ, than to purgatory !'' 

" Ah ! my child, this is all you know ; you are 
too young to comprehend our theology. Disti?i- 
guo, I distinguish! There is hare truth; and 
there is truth that begets a good deal of gain! 
Bare truth wants the omnipotent reason and argu- 
ment with us ! Mother church could reap no ad- 
vantage from it ! But by allowing sinners, espe- 
cially rich sinners, to go on in sin, we gain clear- 
ly a double — nay, a treble advantage. We chain 
our subjects to the faith, by a most liberal indul- 
gence granted, on our part, to their " seeking plea- 
sure a little out of the ordinary way :" and then 
we succeed in persuading all who have any 
worldly goods, that every one who is put into our 
purgatory, does get at length infallibly into heav- 
en, on the church's dues being paid. Hence we 
easily unlock the treasures of the rich dying sin- 
ner. He feels it perfectly reasonable to buy his 
soul, and heaven itself out of the proceeds of those 
estates which he certainly cannot carry hence with 
him. And, lastly, we can woo proselytes over, 
who are mourning over the dead. The Protest- 
ants have no charm of this kind to fascinate the 
ignorant and simple. When their sinners die, 
why there is an end to them. Their religion does 
not go after the wicked sinner into the other 
world. But our religion holds out this glorious 
superiority ; we can by masses, if well paid, bring 
up the greatest profligate out of purgatory, — pro- 
vided that he — is — in — purgatory. And, he is 
certainly there, — that is to say, providing — he — 
died — free — of all — mortal sin!! But no priest 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 79 

can tell who is, and who is not in purgatory ! We 
err, however, on the safe side. We do suppose 
them all in purgatory ; hence with a good grace 
we have a great and ready market for our masses ! 
And, at any rate, if there be any mistake, we take 
care to place purgatory in the other world ! And 
dead men do not come back to tell any tales !" 

The origin, design, and use of purgatory, is per- 
fectly manifest to every one. It is the grand bank 
of Rome. It is an insurance office on a magnifi- 
cent scale ; and it is as safe, as it is lucrative ! Your 
earthly life insurance companies have fearful chan- 
ces of loss ; and these they must pay ; for they 
have living men to deal with. " But, we," say the 
priests, " have infinitely more advantageous premi- 
ums. We dictate, in fact, our own terms. And 
nothing can be more pleasing to friends than, as 
Doblado says, in his Letters from Spain, to have 
the privilege of sending, through our hands, a spe- 
cies of habeas corpus, — or, more properly speaking, 
a habeas animam writ, to any of his friends, or re- 
lations, in purgatory! And, then, we are perfectl}^ 
secure against all loss, or possibility of being called 
upon to refund, in case of loss : for, as we said, 
dead men do not comiO back to trouble us with tales ! 
Hence, we have always been insuring souls, — and 
have never paid one loss ! !" 

" But, your reverence, — what an eternal reckon- 
ing, and payment you may, probably, have to 
make, when you meet them, at God's bar, face to 
face ! Where's your insurance stock, then ?" " Ah ! 

well, — well But — my child, did you never hear 

the famous prayer of the soldier at the battle of 
Blenheim, — it was this, — ' O God ! if there be a 



80 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

God, save my soul, — if I have a soul!' You 

know the application, and my meaning?" "So! 
I understand you — you will deliver our souls, — if 
we have souls, — out of purgatory, — if there be a 
purgatory, — into heaven, — if there be a heaven! !" 

This terrific weapon of spiritual usurpation, as 
it was among the latest of its fictions, will be the 
last that will be surrendered by priestcraft. There 
are two reasons for this: 1st. The fiction of pur- 
gatory has been absolutely more lucrative to po- 
pery, than all the South Sea schemes, or any other 
successful "humbug," in all the records of impos- 
ture, has been to its inventors. By this imposture, 
the pope and his " shavelings," have plundered, and 
pillaged, every nation of Europe, and Mexico, 
and South America, of sums that rise above the 
calculation of human arithmetic ! ! 

2d. It has, with its attendant penances, masses, 
and absolutions, spread pauperism to an almost un- 
limited extent, over all lands which have implicitly 
submitted to this s^^stem of extorting enormous 
sums from men, under false pretences. For proof, 
just look at the Irish Catholic population in Ire- 
land, and all the lands of their exile ! 

3d. It is a terrific instrument of subjugating the 
human mind. It does this indirectly, and directly: 
indirectly, by producing poverty ; and thence ban- 
ishmg all the opportunities, as far as it can, of edu- 
cation ; and all the motives to industry, and econo- 
my. And such a trodden down people becomes the 
prey of the weakest, and most shallow impostor. 
It accomplishes its end directly, by lending all its 
terrors, and all its hopes, to place man entirely 
under the dictation of the spiritual impostor. The 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 81 

victim of popery believes, as we have already said, 
that pope, bishop, priest, have each, as the case may 
be, the uncontrolled power to send him to purga- 
tory ; and procure his liberation from its torments. 
The words of Pope Clement V., in his bull for a 
jubilee, are often quoted by the priest, to strike awe, 
and create hopes, and implicit obedience, — Manda- 
mus angelis, S^c. — We command the angels to take 
his soul out of 'purgatory, wholly clear ^ and absol- 
ved ; and to introduce it into heaverHs glory}'' 

Now, where is the man who, really believing- 
this, is not filled, at once, with the most terrific 
fears, and the most joyous hopes : — with terrors — 
because his priest has it in his power to plunge him 
into this place ; and there to ply his poor soul with 
any species, and any degree of pains, in "the 
fires," or "the frozen waters," or "the steam," of 
purgatory, as he sees fit : — with hopes, — because, 
by well paid masses, after his death, the " holy 
priest" can certainly, and infallibly ransom his poor 
half and half "drowned," his half "frozen," and 
half " steamed" soul, out of all the pains of purga- 
tory ! ! 

Now, I put it to our literary, and well read men, 
to say, if they can discover another system, planned 
by any of all the most consummate impostors, that 
ever disgraced the historv of the human family, — 
in any degree calculated like this, so completely to 
crush the human soul and body, under an intoler- 
able despotism ! — Can these victims of popery, then, 
ever be republicans, or good citizens ? They are 
absolutely at the nod of their spiritual masters; 
they are abject slaves ; they know nothing of liberty ; 
they cannot, therefore, love it, or covet it, or achieve 



82 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

it, for themselves ! At their masters' nod, they are 
ready to rise against all law ; and all order ; and 
all magistrates ; and all the officers of government ; 
and to perpetrate, in cold blood, the greatest enor- 
mities! They are only in the v^^ay of their voca- 
tion. " They will be the hammer, or the nail : 
they will drive, or be driven !" The least disturb- 
ance which they can effect against a heretic gov- 
ernment, has in it very great merit. If they can- 
not overturn, — as yet, — they can, at least, create 
agitations in their enemies' community. Hence, 
their propensity to riot, and mob, and crime ! They 
are in their element, in the midst of these ! They 
are obeying their appetite for mischief; and they 
happen, also, to be rendering service to their " god 
upon earth !" They are working out, by tumult, 
and riot, their own salvation ! And if they expire, 
as their forebears did, on the fields of Languedoc, or 
in the massacres of Ireland, they are taught to believe, 
that through the pathway of mischief, crime, and 
massacre, they will earn glory equal to that of the 
heroes of the St. Bartholomew massacre, and the 
plaudits of their Gregories ! The pope has canonized 
those who fell murdering the heretics 1 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 83 



CHAPTER V. 

Popery^ an enemy to the rights of Conscience — It prof esses to 
give the Bible its divine authority — It enslaves men by its 
baptism — Papists have no voice in the selection of their spi- 
ritual guides — TTiey are denied the use of the Holy Scrip- 
tures — Popery, a neicly invented system — Imposed on man 
by pains and penalties. 



" Roma lecutaest : causa finita est. 
Rome hath spoken : the cause is decided." 

The Pope's favourite Maxim. 



There is perfect unity in popery, in its aim and 
end. It has pursued wealth, and unlimited power, 
with a step as steady as time ; and with an appetite 
as keen as death ! Having succeeded in impover- 
ishing its victims ; in banishing education, and in 
brutalizing them in an appalling degree, it is only 
paving the way for a higher game. Hence, 

9th. Popery is an irreconcilahle enemy io the 
liberty and rights of conscience. This is a main 
object in its ulterior pursuits. In attaining victory 
over the rights of conscience. Popery is not only 
carrying forward its triumphs, but is also securing 
itself effectually against the danger of losing what 
it has already gained. Without this, it would not 
be entitled to that honour with which it is invested 
by Baxter and Cecil, as being " the master-piece of 
Satan, who cannot excel himself in fabricating such 
another." Having usurped the divine prerogative 
of God over man's soul, and conscience, property, 
and destiny, in time, and in eternity, the most effect- 
ual method by which it could retain the fruits of its 
usurpation, was to extinguish man's right to know, 
and think, and act for himself! The risrht to do 



84 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

all this, as a man, — as a human being, — not to say, 
a Christian, is lodged in the priest's hands, who 
mounts as sentinel, over man's plundered rights, 
liberties, and property ! The whole system indi- 
cates the manifold wisdom, and cunning of super- 
human agency, in perfecting a scheme that offers 
defiance to the rights and prerogatives of God, and 
the liberties and happiness of the human family : a 
scheme which has been gradually brought to its 
perfection, since the seventh century, and in which 
it would puzzle the gravest philosopher to deter- 
mine, whether the profound sagacity and cunning 
of its devisers, or its deep and deadly malignity to 
virtue, religion, and human comfort, do most abun- 
dantly prevail ! 

The pope's maxim determines the fate of all the 
liberty and rights of conscience, — " Roma locuta 
est, causa finita est,''^ — what Rome utters is the only 
rule of faith, and morals, to her subjects. Men 
have souls and consciences : but they must use them 
simply, according to papal rules. And it is a mor- 
tal sin to think, or speak, or act, contrary to them. 
The following anecdote, a friend of mine has as- 
sured me, is genuine. A certain physician, still 
alive, when he was a student, went, on a time, to 
confession, for he had been of Roman Catholic pa- 
rentage. Howbeit, inasmuch as he was of a read- 
ing and reflecting turn, he had ventured to read 
what he pleased, and to employ his own soul in 
thinking, in his own way : and he had thus trans- 
gressed the Roman Catholic rule of thinking % 
proxy ! He happened, inadvertently, therefore, to 
say to his father confessor, " I think, Sir, it is so 
and so !" The priest, who was somowhat choleric^ 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 85 

instantly kindled up with great zeal, and half chok- 
ed with rage, exclaimed, — " you think ! And I pray 
you, what right have you to think ? If I ever 
catch you thinking again, I shall place you under 
a penance that will stop your thinking ! !" The 
young man never again went to confess. 

The whole system of popery is based on this 
article of the Roman Catholic creed, namely, that 
laymen have no right to liberty of conscience ! 

1st. The pope, or " the church," meaning the 
Romish sect, have, for ages, claimed the preroga- 
tive of giving to the Holy Bible all the authority 
which it has ever possessed. Every priest, in fact, 
maintains, that without their church, the Bible has 
no authority whatever ! That without her, neither 
its authenticity, and genuineness, nor its divine in- 
spiration, can be established ! " The church," or 
the Romish clergy, has also claimed for ages, the 
absolute, and exclusive power, of explaining and 
settling the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, and 
defining every article of religion ! Hence, in every 
land radically catholicized, the body of the people, 
and even the leading and otherwise intelligent men, 
usually say, when talked to on the affairs of reli- 
gion, — " I know nothing about it, or its evidence of 
inspiration ; my spiritual guide transacts all that bu- 
siness for me." " You ask me about my salva- 
tion ; I know nothing about my salvation ; I trou- 
ble not my head on the matter : that business be- 
longs to my confessor : he is paid all the church's 
dues to arrange that affair with heaven." And, we 
have a striking instance of this, in that singular 
little book, published by the Duke of Brunswick, 
on the occasion of his becoming a papist, in the 
8 



86 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

dotage of his old age, called The Duke of B.^s fifty 
reaso7is for becoming a Roman Catholic. He 
states, in his fiftieth reason, that he secured from the 
priests what he never could gain from the Protes- 
tant ministers ; — namely, a guarantee on the part of 
the Roman Catholic priests, that, should he happen 
to be damned by God, for becoming a papist, they 
were to step in and take his place, and be damned 
in his stead ! This amazing pledge settled all his 
grace's scruples ; he paid the priests' demands, and 
died in their communion. See The Duke of Bruns- 
imck's Fifty Reasons, &c., sold in the Roman Ca- 
tholic bookstores, English edition. 

How completely is popery a religion, transacted 
by proxy ! How completely it annihilates all lib- 
erty of conscience ! Man is thereby made a mere 
automa^ton ; a puppet moved by wires ! 

2d. By his baptism every Roman Catholic is 
constrained to forswear his rights, and liberty of 
co7iscience. In proof of this, I need only refer my 
reader to the decree of the Council of Trent, ses- 
sion 7th, canon 8, and 14, on baptism. "Si quis 
dixerit, &c. If any one shall affirm, that the bap- 
tized are free from all the precepts of holy church, 
WTitten, or traditional, so that they are not obliged 
to submit to them of their o^m accord, let him be 
accursed!" "Whoever shall affirm, that when 
these bptptized children shall grow up, they are to 
be asked whether they will confirm the promise 
made by their godfathers, in their name, in baptism ; 
and that if they say, they will not, they are to be 
left to their own choice, and are not to he coinpelled 
(cogendos) in the meantime to lead a Christian 
life, by any other pii7iish?7ie?it than exclusio?i from 



CIVIL AND PwELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 87 

the eucharist, and the other sacraments, until they 
repent, let hhn be accursed !" 

Thus, every member of the Romish church is 
solemnly bound to believe, that all baptized persons 
are liable to be compelled to be, and to remain, the 
spiritual subjects of the Italian pope, under civil 
pains and penalties ! And thus, as one has observed, 
*' the Council of Trent has converted the institution 
of baptism into an indelible brand of slavery." 

Hence, the true secret, why " Holy Mother" by a 
marvellous stretch of apparent liberality, does ac- 
tually recognise the baptism of all — even of us 
heretics ! The validity of Protestant, and even lay 
baptism, Bellarmine advocates with much show of 
liberality. See his Book Be Sacramentis in gene- 
re. Lib. i. cap. 27. Now,' those half Protestants 
who conceive this to be an irresistible act of gener- 
ous courtesy, and in their turn, as generously recog- 
nise the papal right of Romish baptism, ought to 
be disabused on this m.atter. So far from being an 
act of liberality, it is an act introductory to unbound- 
ed slavery, and violence. By baptism, as they hold, 
man is made a Christian, that is, a spiritual subject 
of the pope ! Being thus made a subject, nothing 
can set him free — say they — from his allegiance to 
Rome, and popery. Every baptized person she 
claims as her slave, wherever they may be found ; 
and every baptized person in apostacy from her, she 
dooms to indefinite punishment, till he bows his 
neck, and submits to her laws, unconditionally. 
But, if those who are 7iot baptized, do fall into her 
hands, she cannot, even by her own sanguinary 
laws, punish, until she has compelled them to be 
baptized. Hence, she recognises our baptism, and 



88 

that of all heretics ; simply for this reason, that, an- 
ticipating the recovery of her lost power over us, 
she can thence make summary work with every one 
of us ! 

This is no idle, or gratuitous supposition. I re- 
fer my readers, for proof and illustration of this, to 
the history of the pope's treatment of the Moors, 
and Jews, in Spain. He could not bring them under 
the reach of the inquisition, because they were not 
baptized ; and, therefore, were not the pope's spirit- 
ual subjects. By means of an army of priests sent 
out, and the troops of the priest-ridden monarch of 
Spain, the Moors were actually forced to be bap- 
tized, by hundreds of thousands. Then, on " their 
relapsing from Christianity," they w^ere formally 
delivered over to the infernal inquisition. 

These forced baptisms, and the consequent claims 
which the pope set up over " his slaves," caused the 
death of one million five hundred thousand Moors, 
and on the most moderate calculation, that of two 
millions of Jews ! See Dr. M. Geddes's Tracts on 
Popery, vol. i. 

3d. No Roman Catholic society, or diocese, is al- 
lowed the right of choosing any one of its spiritual 
guides. 

In the early progress of spiritual tyranny, empe- 
rors and kings put in claims to the prerogative of 
selecting, and appointing the officers of the Chris- 
tian Church. This power was exercised down to 
the times of Charlemagne. But in the rapid prog- 
ress of papal usurpations, the pope, as he gradually 
snatched the sceptral powers from kings and em- 
perors, at length seized upon this doubly usurped 
power. And he, and his doctors, tell the world 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 89 

very gravely, that this power always belonged to 
him of right, as God Almighty's Vicar General 
upon earth! The priests of our day have added 
the marvellous discovery, that their pope does not 
only, of right, exercise this unlimited power of ap- 
pointing all the spiritual officers of the church ; 
but that he has always done it, from the days of Je- 
sus Christ ! ! Hence they do not only rob nations, 
and churches of their natural, and inalienable rights 
of choosing their own spiritual guides ; but in the 
genuine manner of bold and daring impostors, they 
pretend authority from heaven, for their usurpation ; 
and unblushingly palm the imposture upon the 
Lord of light, and of liberty! This alarming 
usurpation, popery clings to with the grasp of death. 
Hence, even in the United States, it is actually dis- 
played and felt. And I call upon my fellow-citi- 
zens to accept this, as one of the strongest, and most 
striking proofs, that popery is not, in any one re- 
spect, reformed, or even meliorated from the Dark 
Ages of European bondage. Had popery been, in 
the least degree, reformed, most assuredly the ref- 
ormation must have begun on this point, in this land 
of freedom ; where the people claim, and will for 
ever retain, the right of choosing their own rulers, 
and their own spiritual guides in the church ! 

But, in proud defiance of this free spirit that 
stirs in the bosom of every republican, and every 
Christian, a foreign despot, residing at Rome, 
claims, and is actually permitted by every Roman 
Catholic in our country, to exercise the prerogative 
of selecting, and sending hither, his own creatures, 
as bishops, priests, vicars, to take care of the souls 
of repU'blicans ! 
8* 



90 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

It is notorious to every one, that no diocese can 
venture, under the pains of papal anathema, to 
choose its own bishop. Every bishop in the pov 
pish church in the United States, is actually ap- 
pointed by the Pope, to each diocese ! The people 
and priests have no voice in the matter. And 
every one of these republican bishops is bound to 
the Pope, by an oath of allegiance, rendered to 
him as their supreme head, temporal and spiritual. 
And this is paramount to every other oath. More- 
over, this hired vassal of a foreign power, having 
continually before his eyes the prospect of Euro- 
pean preferments and honours, if loyal to his mas- 
ter there, has the appointment of all the priests in 
his diocese. The people are deprived of all their 
rights to choose their spiritual guides ; they have 
no powers vouchsafed to them, not even to recom- 
mend the man of their choice. The hired agent 
of the despot selects, and fixes down each priest in 
each chapel, as he sees fit, in his sovereign power ; 
without leave asked of any. Here, verily, is an 
end to all liberty of conscience ! And even the 
native American Catholics submit to this ! ! 

4th. The papal decree, denying to the people the 
right of reading, each man for himself the Holy 
Scriptures, is another proof of what we have said 
on this 'matter. The decree is this: — " Cum ex- 
perimento, &c. From, experience it is manifest 
that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar 
tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, 
the temerity of men will cause more evil than good 
to arise out of it." See Rule IV. of the Congre- 
gation of the Index : and Cramp, p. 60. and 447. 

This rule condemns and prohibits all transla- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 91 

tions into any vernacular tongue of any people. 
Hence it must proceed from ignorance, or some 
worse motive in the priests who attempt to soften 
this down, by alleging that the Trent fathers con- 
demn only Protestant versions. 

Clement XL, in his bull against the Jansenists in 
1713, condemned as heretical the following propo- 
sitions : " that it is useful and necessary to study 
the Holy Scriptures, at all times, and in all places." 
*' That the reading of the Holy Scriptures is for 
everybody." These propositions the Pope actu- 
ally pronounced " false, shocking, scandalous, sedi- 
tious, impious, blasphemous." See BuUarium 
Magnum, Tom. 8. p. 118. and Cramp, 61. 

Pius VII., in the year 1816, denounced the Bible 
Society in these words : *' It is a most crafty device, 
shaking the foundations of religion," "a pesti- 
lence," "a defilement of the faith, most imminently, 
dangerous to souls." His Epistle to the Arch- 
bishop of Gnezn. 

Leo XII., in 1824, in his Encyclical Letter, 
pp. 16, 54, 57, thus utters his fierce malediction 
against Bible Societies. " They stroll with effront- 
ery through the world, despising the traditions of 
the fathers ; and contrary to the Trent Council, they 
labour to translate, or rather pervert the Holy Bible 
into the vulgar languages of all nations." " And it 
is greatly to be feared," adds he, "that their proceed- 
ings will, by a perverse interpretation, turn 

Christ's gospel into a human gospel ; or what is 
worse still, into the gospel of the devil !" 
Thus the highest authority of Rome has pro- 
nounced it dangerous, and even a fatal sin, in God^s 
own subjects, to translate into the vulgar tongue, 



92 POPBRY, THE ENEMY OF 

and read that Book, which he has given them, as 
the only perfect rule of their faith ; which he has 
commanded to be diligently searched by all: (John 
V. 39.) and which he has sealed as perfect, with 
the tremendous tokens of his justice on all who 
shall injure it, or neglect it. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

Here we have an exhibition of one of the most 
singular phenomena in the moral world. There 
is nothing similar to it in ordinary fanatics, or 
common impostures. It is the beast of St. John's 
holy visions ; it is entirely sui generis. It unites 
singular extremes. It combines at once the bold 
impostures of a false prophet on the grand scale 
of a Mohammed ; backing, as he did, its equally 
novel system on the one hand, with the fascina- 
tions of a fleshly paradise, and, on the other, with 
the fury of fire and cimeter ; and, at the same 
time, it practises the more humble arts of the more 
modest impostors, such as those of the Southcotes, 
and of our own domestic fabrication, the miserable 
Matthias ! It wears the cowl, and it sports the 
triple crown! It swaggers on its throne; and 
calls itself " the servant of servanis^^ It is the 
vicar of God ; and the successor of the humble 
fisherman. It grasps the dust of the earth's riches, 
and lays claim to the spiritual treasures of heaven. 
At its bidding, its priests and bishops stand up be- 
tween Almighty God and man ; and dashing the 
Holy Bible from the hands of its votaries, it 
breathes its curse on all who shall dare study, or 
even read, the Sacred Scriptures : and raising its 
brazen front to the flashing lightnings of heaven, 
it trembles not to tell the Almighty, that he shall 
not speak through his awn Word, to his own sub- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 93 

jects ; nor shall his subjects hear, saving only in 
that way and manner that his priests shall dictate 
to man, and to God Almighty ! 

It has even meditated a kind of refinement on 
this insufferable outrage to the majesty of the Deity, 
and man's inalienable rights of conscience. And 
it has herein given a specimen of the impious, and 
the ridiculous. It tells God Almighty that it 
will grant a license to his subjects, to read that 
Blessed Word, which he has commanded every 
human being ''to search'!'' Then turning to man, 
it adds, " but that license shall be paid for, at my 
my own valuation ; and until that is paid for in 
ready money, you shall not be allowed to read it !" 

This consummation of imposture it has actually 
practised. I have seen a copy of such a license. 
The reader can see a specimen of it in Burnett's 
History of the Reformation. It is the copy of the 
license given by Tonstal to Sir Thomas More. 
But even this pittance of favour was granted on a 
heaven-daring condition. Yes, after haggling with 
man about the price, — it turns its face towards 
heaven, and tells God Almighty, that while it is 
pleased to give a license to his creatures to read 
his word, it will, by no means, license any man to 
think for himself, or take up any sentiment from 
the Bible, in the least respect differing from the 
papal religion ! And that if any of God's subjects 
should dare take up what his Word might seem 
plainly to teach, — on account of every such idea 
that he should imbibe, in any respect differing from 
the dogmas of Rome, not even the license, nor 
any power on earth could save him ! Man, when 
licensed, may read; but wo unto him if he shall 



94 POPERY, THE ENEMY O^ 

think for himself; or exercise the rights of con- 
science ! 

At length, however, even this miserable privilege 
was revoked by Paul V., who, in 1612, abolished 
these licenses. It was found to be a dangerous 
source of light and knowledge to reading men ! 
See Mendham's Literary Policy of Rome, p. 136. 
This despotism over the human mind, by v/hich a 
priest is constituted the depository of thinking; 
and made sole agent to choose one's religion for 
him, and transact the whole business of salvation, 
according to a regulated price of his proxy for 
heaven, has been actually defended by no less a 
man than Cardinal Bellarmine, in his Vv^ork, De 
interpretatio?te Verbi Dei, Lib. iii. cap. 1, 2, 3. — 
If any man will venture to endure the inflictions 
of his reasonings, let him try to read that soporific 
book. 

5th. It will be proper here to observe, that this 
point is farther established, by the fact, that the 
Roinish hierarchy has dictated anovel religion; not 
fou7id in the Bible, and v/nhnoion to the Christian, 
church vMtil the seventh century. And wherever 
it has the power, it enforces it by civil penalties ! 
The evidence that popery is a mere novelty, is ex- 
hibited in our Letters in the R. C. Controversy ; 
Part L, Letter 8. I shall only remark, that pa- 
pists have added some twelve or fourteen new arti- 
cles to the apostles' creed ; that they have created 
innumerable objects of divine worship, under the 
name of saints : and thus have removed from their 
system the unity of the object of divine worship: 
that a modern, and disgusting invention, called the 
BiAss, has completely removed from the view of 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 95 

their members, the perfect atonement of Christ: 
that, in fine, no doctrine of the gospel, and no one 
precept of the decalogue, has escaped the appalling 
corruptions of Rome. See our Letters, Part II. ; 
Letters 26, and 27. 

And to this novel religion, the Roman Hierarchy 
has ventured to add this article, in defiance of all 
sober reason : " This is the true Catholic faith, out 
of which there is no possibility of salvation /" 

And so completely does the papal fanatic lord it 
over his own priests, and all men's consciences, 
that he condescendingly takes their present, and 
future destiny entirely under his care ! By his 
army of priests intruding themselves everywhere, 
he claims to convey grace, through the novel rite, 
which he is pleased to call baptism, to every one 
who receives his mark 1 In the mass, by means 
of these sacerdotal proxies, he daily re-creates their 
god ! And this god including their atonement, 
justification, and ho]iness, and "the body and blood, 
soul and divinity of Christ," he professes to put 
through the swallowed wafer, into each one of his 
devotees ! And so their salvation is infallibly sa- 
cred, whatever may be their morals; and whatever 
may be their crimes ! Be they thieves, robbers, or 
pirates ; be they Neros, or Charleses, or Bourbons ; 
be they blasphemers, infidels, or atheists, — they 
have no sooner swallowed the wafer god, than they 
are all made as pure as the saints in glory ! !* 

* This transubstantiation of a little water and flour, in the 
form of a wafer, into " the body and blood, soul and divinity of 
Christ," is effected by the priest's pronouncing the words of 
his consecration, — namely, ^^ Hoc est corpus meum: — This is 
my body." Now, if any one will pronounce these Latin 
words rapidly,— "iJoc est corpus.^' He will perceive that he 



96 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

At his novel and lucrative tribunal of the confes- 
sional, his devotees are taught to believe that the 
simple act of confessing their sins to their priest, 
and bringing forth fruit meet for repentance, simply 
hy faying the churchJs dues, each receives an ab- 
solution, in full, of all sins, past and present ! And 
this is pronounced "judicially" by his priest as a 
judge sitting in Christ's throne ! And in regard to 
future sins, no sin that can be committed by the be- 
liever in popery, is beyond the priestly pardon. 
The pecuniary terms only complied with, for masses 
for the dead, a satisfactory Life Insurance is guar- 
antied against all claims of divine justice, and all 
the pains of hell, and purgatory ! For, by " ex- 
treme unction^ the sinner who has been obstinate, 
and impenitent all his life, when dying, receives a 
carte blanche, a full passport to heaven, without the 
troublesome liability of any questions being put to 
him by even the judge himself, at the bar of 
judgment ! And should one of the faithful chance, 
amid such unspeakable privileges, to fall into the 
fires of purgatory, by some defect in the passport; 
or some lack of "the intention," on the part of the 
priest, — the case is not remediless. " Money an- 
swers all things," — in purgatory, as well as on 
earth. A few well paid masses, without any refer- 
ence to Jesus Christ, or his atonement, will procure 
him a speedy release ! 

pronounces the close resemblance of the words, " Hocus po- 
cus." And this, says Dr. Clarke, is the origin of the famous 
Hocus pocus of air jugglers. It has its appropriate origin 
with the arch jugglers,— the Roman priests; who "juggle a 
small biscuit into Christ's body and blood, soul and divinity." 
These are the words of their own missal ! ! " Quid vetat ri- 
dentem dicere verum 7" 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 97 

So evident to all must be this truth, that by the 
popish religion, the souls of men are taken out of 
their own care, — nay, out of the hands of our Re- 
deemer, and the Judge of all flesh, — without leave 
asked or given ! And they are placed in the hands 
of the pope's army of priests, who go up over the 
land like the swarming plagues of Egypt ! And 
these priests profess to manage, and transact the 
whole business of souls, — even their destiny here, 
and in eternity ! They undertake to send to hea- 
ven ; and doom to hell, or to purgatory! This they 
do as impudently as did the despots of olden times, 
in their unbounded tyranny over the bodies of theii 
subjects ! So completely is liberty of conscience 
taken away, and destroyed by popery ! 

That such claims should be set up, and prosecu- 
ted by men, professing to revere the Christian name, 
is strange. But that human beings, — men having 
rational souls, — that the descendants of the ancient 
Romans, Gauls, Germans, Britons, and Scots, 
should have crouched beneath these papal Neros, 
and placed their bodies, and souls, under their heel, 
and, moreover, should invite them to crush them, 
and even kiss the foot that crushes them, — does 
really surpass all that is marvellous on historic 
page ! Had we only heard of it, in far distant 
lands, merely as a rumour, or a mere record of his- 
tory, we should have repelled the statement as a 
fiction — as a vile libel on human nature ! But we 
need not go to Europe, or South America. Here, 
in our own free land, where liberty glows in bloom- 
ing beauty and vigour, — even here do we see man 
crushed in the dust, under the heel of the lordly 
emissary of the Roman despot ! Deplorable and 
9 



98 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

brutal ignorance is the cause ! These victims of 
this old and dying superstition, still believe in the 
omnipotence of their priests; and conceive that 
they wield the keys of hell, and of death ! Could 
any thing short of the profound sagacity of Satan 
have supplied them with the practical maxim : — 
** Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he 
give for his life!" " Verily, they have their re- 
ward." 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 99 



CHAPTER Vi. 

Popery further shown to he immutably the saTne m/, as in the 
Dark Ages — These Dark Ages t?ere, in fact, the Augustine 
age of Popery — looked hack to, with feelings of pride, by 
the priests — Hence no alteration from these halcyon days, 
where they have the powei — Evidence of Popery being unre- 
formed, and unreformable — Index Prohibitory — Dens^s 
Theology — Doctrine of Maynooth College — Circular of 
Pope Gregory XVI. — Further proof qf the hostility of Po^ 
pery to Religious hiberty — Its persecutions — Its inquisition. 



" She weaves the winding-sheet of souls, and lays 
Them in tlie urn of everlasting death !" Pollok. 



I DARE say, some who are not acquainted with 
popery, as it appears in its standard books, and de- 
cretals, or in the actual craft of the Jesuits, will say 
that "this infringement on the rights of conscience, 
is now done away." They will admit that, in the 
Dark Ages, this outrage may have been perpetra- 
ted. " But, growing light has expelled the evil." 

It deserves notice, that this is precisely, what 
every Jesuit among us, is extremely anxious to 
have us all believe. And every honest man, who 
knows the history and spirit of Jesuitism, will 
pause, and cautiously reject whatever our foreign 
invaders anxiously promulge. Besides, how 
often must we repeat it, — in the solemn voice of 
warning — 

" O Teucri ! ne credite equo !" 

O Americans ! do not trust the beast ! 

Popery professes, and takes God to witness, that 
it never changes ; it never has erred ; it never can 
err. Besides, those acquainted with the popish 
writers, scout with contempt, our Protestant ideas 



100 ^ POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

of the said "Dark Ages!" Do Protestants not 
know that these " Dark Ages," of which we speak 
with sorrow, were, in fact, the Augustine Age of 
Popery I Then it flourished in the beauty and su- 
premacy of its glory ! No true Roman Catholic, 
except when among his heretical neighbours, ever 
thinks of speaking disrespectfully of those " Dark 
Ages." And every priest of Rome, true to the 
pious maxim, that ignorance is the mother of devo- 
tion, is at all times prepared to laud, in no measur- 
ed terms, the glory of the reign of Catholicism in 
the Dark Ages ! We beg our fellow-citizens, 
therefore, not to persist in offering violence to the 
feelings of their Catholic brethren, by their thought- 
less assertions, that popery is reformed, or changed, 
in any degree, from what it is, in its statute book ; 
or from what it was in former ages 1 The chalice, 
containing a mixture of the most deadly poison, 
cannot, reasonably, be called a fatal cup, as long as 
there is no daring hand to shake it, and administer 
it to the unsuspecting ! Now, — to be grave, what 
evidence would satisfy my reader that the dogmas 
of popery, at this day, and in our land, respecting 
iibertyof conscience, are as inveterate, and illiberal 
as ever? 

I direct you to the Index of Prohibited Books, 
which is in as full force as ever. I point you to 
all the intolerant dogmas of the darkest and most 
sanguinary days of popery, that remain in their 
text books. I beg to refer you to Dens' s Theologia, 
the text book in the Roman Catholic College of 
Maynooth, in Ireland, the principal Seminary for 
Roman priests. In the examination of its profes- 
sors, and the bishops of Ireland, before the Royal 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 101 

Commissioners, in 1826, it is true, they denied the 
leading tenets of popery ; they denied their own 
standard books ; and even the pope's infallibility, 
and solemn decrees. This every honest man anti- 
cipated. Would Roman Catholics of the Jesuit 
school, or even of the more liberal Galilean church, 
refuse to testify any thing, to steal a march on her- 
etics, and to obtain the royal bounty of some 
twenty thousand guineas ! 

With all this testimony, uttered gravely on oath, 
about their loyalty, and veneration to the Protes- 
tant government, it is a point not deniable, that 
Dens' s Theologia is one of the text books of that 
college to this day.* And here I shall give an ab- 
stract from it. The following propositions are set 
forth with laboured proof: 

''Prop. 1. Protestants are heretics, and as such 
are worse than Jews, and pagans." 

" Prop. 2. That they are by baptism, and by blood, 
under the power of the Roman Catholic church." 
See vol. ii. 77, 78. 114. 

''Prop. 3. That heretics (Protestants) are sub- 
ject to the Roman Catholic church." 

" Prop. 4. So far from granting toleration to Pro- 
testants, it is the duty of the church, to exterminate 
the rites of their religion." 

" Prop. 5. That it is the duty of the Roman Ca- 

* This is a bulky compilation adopted by the Irish Arch- 
bishop, twenty-seven years ago; and printed at MeckHn, 
1815, in seven vols. ; and afterward published by Archbishop 
Murray, in eight vols. This book was solemnly approved of 
by the Irish prelates, at their meetings, in 1808, and in 1810. 
The printer to Maynooth college, issued, not long ago, an edi- 
tion of 3000 copies. It is this day, a publicly avowed text 
book of popery. This was demonstrated by our Protestant 
friends in London, at the late great meeting in Exeter Hall. 
9* 



102 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

tholic church to compel heretics, by corporal pun- 
ishment, to submit to her faith." See p. 79. 81. 

" Prop. 6. That the punishments decreed by the 
Roman Catholic church, are confiscation of goods, 
exile, imprisonment, and death." 

Such is the doctrine taught in Maynooth college, 
where the Irish priests are trained ! 

The following is from the Jesuit Confession of 
Faith imposed on papists in Hungary, published in 
German, at Berlin, 1829; and translated in The 
hondon Protestant Journal of 1831. "We also 
swear, that we will persecute this cursed evangeli- 
cal doctrine, as long as we have a drop of blood in 
our bodies ; and we will eradicate it secretly and 
publicly ; violently and deceitfully, with words, and 
with deeds ; the sword not excluded.'''' Lond. Prot. 
Jour. p. 210. 

And, finally, we present an extract from the cir- 
cular letter of the present pope, Gregory XVI., 
issued in 1832. " Atque ex hoc, &c. And from 
this most filthy source of i?idiffere?itis7n, flows that 
absurd and erroneous opinion, or rather mad con- 
ceit, that liberty of conscience is to be claimed and 
maintained by all ! The way for which most pes- 
tilent error is prepared by that extensive and inor- 
dinate liberty of opinion, which is spreading far 
and wide ! Thence comes the chief scourge of a. 
state; since experience shows that, states flourish- 
ing in wealth, dominion, and glory, have fallen to 
pieces through this one evil alone, namely, — a7i un- 
governed freedom of opinion, licentiousness of 
public harangues, &c." Page 13, Dubl. Edit. 1833. 

Can any thing more be wanting to show clearly 
that the dogmas of popery are precisely the same 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 103 

they ever v^ere, on liberty of conscience ? Yes ; one 
thing more would show it — by fagot, and steel! 
Only give them numerical power ! 

But, 6. How appalling is the evidence set forth 
in her deeds ? From what motives have the oceans 
of human blood been shed by papists ? To put down 
civil liberty ! Why have the millions of Albigen- 
ses, and Waldenses, been massacred by the sangui- 
nary edicts and arms of Rome? Because these 
men vindicated the rights of man, and the liberty of 
conscience ! Why did the pope's vassals massacre 
fifteen hundred thousand Jews, in Spain ? Because 
they claimed liberty of conscience ! Why were 
three millions of Moors butchered by Romish 
priests, and their bloody slaves, in Spain? Because 
they would not yield up their consciences to men 
compared with whom their own prophet, Moham- 
med, was a pious saint 1 Why did Charles IX., 
the King of France, and his masters, the Romish 
priests, enact the bloody tragedy of St. Bartholo- 
mew's massacre ; and murder, at the pope's bidding, 
a hundred thousand of the best people of the king- 
dom ? To crush religious liberty, and the common 
rights of man! Why did Pope Gregory XIII., 
proclaim, on that occasion, a public rejoicing ; and 
lead the way, in solemn procession, to his temples, 
and cause a medal to be struck to perpetuate the 
memory of these horrible scenes ? To commemo- 
rate his bloody victory over the religious rights of 
man, and the liberty of conscience. Why were the 
sanguinary wars waged in Holland, by the Duke 
of Alva ; and myriads sacrificed by him in cold 
blood ? It was a war against the genius of reli- 
gious freedom, and the sacred rights of human con- 



104 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

science ! Why did that proud slave, Louis XIV.) 
at the haughty pope's bidding, murder, and exile 
unnumbered myriads of the most industrious, and 
moral subjects of his own kingdom 1 Because he 
had humbled himself to become voluntarily, the 
pope's principal executioner, among the crowned 
heads of Europe, to destroy religious liberty, and 
the rights of conscience ! Why were the horrid 
flames of Smithfield lighted up in England, in the 
Marian persecution ? Because the demon of po* 
pery, and the pope's handmaid, dueen Mary, were 
i3ent on another desperate experiment to annihilate 
the religious liberty of England ! Who moved 
the wild Irish Catholics to massacre the Protestants 
of Ireland, in the first half of the 17th century? 
It was the pope, and his army of ferocious priests, 
bent on a fresh effort to exterminate liberty and the 
rights of conscience ! Who caused the indiscrim- 
inate massacre of the myriads of innocent beings in 
Spain, and Italy, in the 16th century. It was the 
genius of papal despotism, in its bloody raide, to 
quench the light of the Blessed Reformation, and 
annihilate the claims of religious liberty ! What 
moved the Spanish papists to murder fifteen millions 
of Indians, in South America, Mexico, and Cuba? 
Why, it was the devil, and the popish priests, plot- 
ting in accursed league to compel men to renounce 
all claims to the inalienable rights of conscience ; 
and force upon these amiable pagans, a religion so 
sanguinary as to shock the most obstinate heathen ! 
In one word, the church of Rome has spent im- 
mense treasures, and shed, in murder, the blood of 
sixty-eight millions, and five hundred thousand of 
the human race, to establish, before the astonished 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 105 

and disgusted world, her fixed determination to an- 
nihilate every claim set up by the human family to 
liberty, and the rights of unbounded freedom of con- 
science ! 

7, And last : The actual existence, and doings of 
the Inquisition, manifest the practical doctrine of 
popery on this matter. The court, so appropriate- 
ly named by all civilized men, the infernal 
INQUISITION, was at no time, or in any sense, a 
civil tribunal. It remained for Bishop England, 
who wears the honours of " Inquisitor General of 
the United States,^^ to labour to palm off this im- 
posture on a few old w^omen in Baltimore — the 
archbishop was one of their number, — that it was 
*' ever and ever a civil tribunal ; and none of Holy 
Mother's spiritual courts." 

But it did originate with priests ; it has always 
been the tool of priests ; no layman ever did pre- 
side over it. None but Romish priests could have 
invented it ; none but priests could endure it ; none 
but ecclesiastics have been inquisitors. This is 
the unbroken testimony of history. And in an- 
other place, I shall show that this ghostly court 
claimed power above, and independent of even sov- 
ereign princes. 

The following table, extracted from Llorente's 
History of the Inquisition, the most recent publica- 
tion on the subject, exhibits the number of persons 
who were its victims, in Spain, from 1482 to 1808, 
inclusive— a period of 327 years. 

During that period the number burnt ahve was •• • 34,658 

Burnt in effigy 18,014 

Condemned to the galleys and prisons 288,219 

In the table are several items worthy of particular 
notice. Under the administration of the Inquis- 



106 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

itor General Torquemado, from 1481 to 1498— 

17 years, were burnt alive 10,229 

Burnt in effigy 6,810 

Condemned to the galleys and prisons 97,371 

Under King Philip II., from 1556 to 1597,-41 years 

—burnt ahve 3,990 

Burnt m effigy 1,815 

Condemned to the gallevs and prisons 18,450 

From 1788, to 1808, condemned to the galleys 43 

479,599 

A recent publication of London gives this sum- 
mary. 

Victims sacrificed under Torquemado 105,285 

Under Cisneros 51,167 

Under Diego Perez 34,952 

Families destroyed by the Inquisition 500,000 

It has cost Spain in all two millions of lives ! 

Now, what was the real object which induced 
these sanguinary priests to commit so many mur- 
ders, and inflict such unutterable misery on the 
human family ? It was in a fierce war of exter- 
mination against the advocates of the rights of 
men, whose only crime was to contend earnestly 
by Scripture arguments for the progress of know- 
ledge, liberty, and the unshackled rights of con- 
science. That was the sole aim of every Auto da 
fe, which closed the annual labours of the infer- 
nal inquisition? It was the annual sacrifice 
to the popish Moloch, who demanded of his vota- 
ries the blood of every man who shall claim the 
rights of conscience, or advocate religious liberty. 
These he required to be burned alive on his in- 
human altars ! 

The bloody laws which enacted these human 
sacrifices, stand, all of them, unrepealed ; they are 



CIVIL AND RELIGI<5US LIBERTY. 107 

in full force to this day. We renew a challenge 
to produce a papal bull condemning them ; or even 
expressing the slightest disapprobation of them. 
On the contrary, every bishop, on taking the oath 
of fealty, swears that " he receives those laws and 
canons, and will, to the utmost of his power, im- 
pugn and persecute all heretics /" 

Yet, our half Protestants hesitate not to commend 
these enemies of the natural rights of man, as being 
just as good citizens, and just as holy Christians, as 
their neighbours ! 

" Oh 1 judgment, thou hast fled to brutish beasts : 
And men have lost their reason f" 



108 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

POPERY A DEADLY ENEMY TO THE LIBERTY 
OF THE PRESS. 

Tkt sentiments of Jesuits on this — How to be learned — The 
aim of the Roman Catholic press, here — Character and 
spirit of the popish press — they use the free press against 
iisel/— Proofs that popery is the fatal enemy of the j^ress. 



" We muat put down printing ; or printing will put down us V'—The Ro}7mn 
Catholic Vicar qf Croydon. 

What the true sentiments of the pope and 
his subjects are on this point, in our republic, we 
can never discover from the apparent unlimited 
toleration permitted to priests and the laity, to pub- 
lish books and weekly prints. Their real senti- 
ments must be gathered from their practices in 
popish lands ; and from their Latin books alone. 
These we have taken pains to compare Avith the 
doctrines set forth in their prints, and their popular 
works in English. And we assure the public 
that we perceive daily evidence to believe that 
there is a regular organized system of deception 
practised on Protestants. By popular harangues 
m their chapels, and by superficial, but plausible 
books, which any one can see on the tables of their 
approved booksellers, the .Tesuits are now most 
studiously exhibiting popery under a mask. They 
have got up a marvellous system of absolute fic- 
tions. We have a perfect specimen of them, in 
The Reports of the examinations of the Romish 
professors of Maynooth, before the royal commis- 
sioners. The popery of these fictions is a pretty, 
innocent, harmless thing, bleeding under perspci:- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 109 

tion! Such an exhibition of popery, at Rome, or 
in Spain, and Austria, would make the pope and 
cardinals hold up their hands in wonderment ! 
Yet these are the fictions which the Jesuit priests, 
with the utmost affectation of gravity, attempt to 
palm on the American community as their " gen- 
uine, misophisticated Catholicity !'^ And yet, there 
are a few peculiarities in these exhibitions, which, 
while they are designed to conciliate their foreign 
masters, and preserve the unity of Holy Mother, 
do most marvellously betray the cloven foot of 
"the Beast !" They never admit of any change, 
or any reformation in popery! How, then, do 
they attempt to reconcile popery, as they represent 
it noiL\ with that which unshrinking history reveals 
as its true character in the Dark Ages ? Acting 
on the unrevoked principles of their fathers, who 
were accustomed to dogmatize and employ brute 
force against all reformers, they would, if left to 
the genius of popery, compel men even now to 
conform in belief, and in practice, to all the rig- 
orous tenets of the system. But, now, those days 
of the popish golden age having passed away, 
they do labour to make men believe that popery 
NEVER WAS what men represent it to have been : 
that it NEVER WAS, at any time, any thing else 
than that same sweet, smiling, innocent angel, and 
perfect cherub, under which they now picture forth 
popery! They put the mask of virgin loveliness 
over the haggard and brazen face of " the Mother 
of Harlots;" they adjust the fair robe of the queen 
of truth over the palsied limbs of the personification 
of all wickedness ; and cry, '' Behold the image of 
Holy Mother /" And they call on all to bow down, 
10 



110 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

and receive the image and mark of the Beast on 
the forehead, and in the hands ! 

This the popish press, in our country, labours 
with consummate Jesuitism, to accomplish. But 
there is a striking peculiarity of that press, besides 
its hypocrisy ; I mean its vindictive spirit, — its un- 
relenting virulence, and immeasurable personal 
abuse of the men who successfully resist popery. 
The men who have the courage to utter the alarm 
to their countrymen, against these hired emis- 
saries of Austria, and the pope, are denounced in 
their prints, and from their altars, as the enemies 
of God, because they are the pope's enemies ! 
They are slandered in the characteristic slang of 
these foreign conspirators ; and are hunted down 
in the popish circles, as men not fit to live ! They 
are held up to their ignorant and ferocious parti- 
sans, as worse than those men whom their fore- 
fathers sent to the gibbet and the stake ! They 
put into circulation the most grotesque falsehoods 
and revolting slanders ; their priests and hired de- 
famers go from house to house, and partly in ap- 
parent mirth, and partly in solemn gravity, over 
their flowing cups, circulate the most libellous 
slanders respecting Protestant magistrates, minis- 
ters, and people ! This fact is familiar to every 
Christian, who has taken an interest in our New 
York and Philadelphia discussions. 

And the popish press acts with ingenuity on the 
maxim, Divide and conquer ! They lose no chance 
to divide, and excite Protestants against each other. 
Those of us who simply, through constitutional in- 
dolence, wish to occupy neutral ground: those who 
condescend to seek favour, or bribe a voter, or sac- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. HI 

rifice to sweet-eyed charity, at the expense of truth, 
and speak a word of flattery, or who observe mere 
forbearance, are instantly seized upon, and held up 
to the applauding gaze ; and are extolled by Mile- 
sian eloquence, above the skies. They speak of 
them as too fond parents speak of their alarmingly 
precocious children; they are too good, and too 
ripe — they fear — to live long ! They are over- 
whelmed under the weight of Irish sacerdotal 
*' blarney," excited even to poetry by the inspira- 
tions of the cup ! They are subjected to a process 
pretty much after the manner of that to which the 
Boa constrictor subjects his victims ; and, pretty 
much, also, for the same object. That is to say, — 
they are carefully licked all over, from horn to 
hoof, — simply that they may be more easily swal- 
lowed entire ; and with the least injury to the 
devourer ! 

And after five years' experience in public dis- 
cussions with Roman Catholic laymen, priests, 
and vicars general, I can add another peculiarity 
of the men who sustain popery by pulpit declama- 
tion, and the press. It is this : — with an air of 
winning courtesy, — or, when it is necessary to suit 
the action to the word, with an air of ferocity, they 
charge on their antagonists the very errors, and 
crimes, which they anticipate to be charged from 
history, on their system. With the most provok- 
ing coolness, they take their position on the absurd- 
est and most grotesque errors, on exploded max- 
ims, and heresies long rejected by every reasonable 
man ; and they utter their perfect amazement that 
prejudice will so blind Protestants, that they can- 
not see these to be the holy and pure reveal in gs 



112 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

of heaven! Practising a system of logic which 
might have made a disputant respectable among 
barbarians of "the Dark Ages," they glory over 
their perfection in learning, and the sciences. They 
will admit nothing ; they will deny every thing ; 
they will repudiate for effect, even their own doc- 
trines, and their own canons ! When the origi- 
nal has been produced, in their own doggerel 
Latin, and the priest confronted with it, as I once 
witnessed it done with a master-spirit of the Jes- 
uits, (Mr. H.,) he exclaimed, as he laboured to 
restrain himself,—" It is true — yes, — Ah ! — -these 
are the ivords, to be sure : but, then, distinguo ! 
— We do not take it in that sense !" They will 
publicly deny not only their own authentic dogmas ; 
but even the most authentic facts of history. The 
late Bishop Cheverus, of Boston, once denied pub- 
licly, in the presence of the Boston ministers, at a 
public dinner, that the church of Rome ever per- 
secuted, or ever slew one man ; or ever shed one 
drop of blood for religion ! Even the worst acts 
of Spain, and even the St. Bartholomew massacre he 
denied; and pronounced them altogether fictions 
of Protestants ! I have the name of ray reverend 
friend to give in evidence of this, who stood near 
him, and heard him utter this ! 

When, therefore, the Papists employ the press 
for this end, and in this manne^r, their freedom of 
discussion can scarcely be conceived to be any 
evidence of their devotion to the unshackled lib- 
erty of the press. I. The fact is this, — the Roman 
Catholics employ the press to put down, as far as 
human efforts can, the grand principles of the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 113 

Reformation; namely, liberty and free dis- 
cussion. 

1st. The proof is too obvious to be mistaken. 
Let these foreign servants of a foreign master give 
a sober answer to these queries, before the Amer- 
ican community. Have the Roman priests, with 
the press under their control, ever yet retraced one 
single step towards purity, and truth ? Have they 
ever yet confessed one error, or admitted one mis- 
take in the whole career of " Holy Mother 
Church?" Have they ever deplored the paralyz- 
ing influence of bigotry, superstition, or idolatry, 
on the minds of Roman Catholics? Have they 
uttered a single regret for the inhuman persecu- 
tions enacted by their church ? No : on the con- 
trary, they tell us with unblushing impudence, that 
they never shed one drop of blood unjustly ? Have 
they ever admitted that their zealous devotees, par- 
ticularly the Irish Catholics, by nature, as warm- 
hearted, and as shrewd a race of men as there 
lives on earth, — are, nevertheless, behind the native 
American, and every other Protestant, two hundred 
years, in point of civilization and learning ? Do 
they employ the press to civilize and elevate man ? 
Do they labour to erect common schools, and send 
the schoolmaster abroad among them ? No : they 
have opposed uniformly, and will continue to op- 
pose the whole system of popular education. For 
they are too shrewd to be as yet felones de se ! Do 
they ever print Holy Bibles, and distribute them 
gratis, as all Christians do ? So far from that, they 
have even prohibited their people the use of them : 
and Pope Leo XH., as well as Pius VH., and the 
present pope, as we have already shown, have is- 
10* 



114 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

sued their bulls against Bible Societies ! Hence 
the popish press exerts all its influence against the 
gratuitous distributing of Bibles, and even against 
the reading of the Holy Bible by the laity ! 

Again, 2d. One of the most painful evidences of 
the hostility of popery to the liberty of the press, is 
the existence of the Roman hidexes, Prohibitory 
and Exfurgatory. I find in one copy, a list of 
condemned books, brought down in due order to the 
year 1738: and in "Mendham's book," we have 
the list continued down to our time. These pro- 
hibit our finest English classics, from Locke and 
Milton, dow^n even to the pamphlets published in 
priest Hogan's case, at Philadelphia : these, includ- 
ing even the bishop's book, are solemnly condemn- 
ed, and must not be read ! See Mendham's Lite- 
rary Policy of Rome, p. 265. 

The Congregation of the Index are in constant 
session at Rome ; and employ their emissaries in 
all lands. They watch their victims with an eye 
as steady, and keen as that of the spider, — or the 
tiger in his jungle. This sleepless eye they Iceep 
on every individual production of the press. They 
pounce on every book, as soon as it is published, or 
imported. Every volume, every print, even the 
private property of the traveller, must be rigorous- 
ly inspected by these solemn drudges of the pope. 
And they doom the whole book, or parts of it, to 
be destroyed; or, they give it leave to pass, if the 
spirit of crouching slavery, and consecrated heresy, 
be- duly and honestly taught in it ! No discussions 
on politics, or Christian morals, or religion, are al- 
lowed: no publications on these topics can see the 
light. Every branch of science is under the ghost- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 115 

ly supervision. Listen, I beseech you, to your fel- 
low-citizens, who have returned from their travels 
in Italy, Austria, and Naples, or South America. 
In these lands the drawn sword of papal myrmi- 
dons is put to the throats of every public speaker, 
and editor, and author ! One unpopish idea, — one 
single charge against despotism, — one word in 
praise of liberty, — one innuendo against priestcraft, 
even although you say no more than that you have 
seen them in their priestly roheSi at the cockpit ; and 
deeply engaged, publicly, in gambling, with their 
mistresses, and licentious companions : one appeal, 
even though feebly uttered, for a free press, — for 
pure Christianity, and the rights of human con- 
science, will cost a man his liberty, or life, in one 
brief hotir ! Men may be as wicked as any of the 
ghostly leaders of the fashion that way ; men may 
blaspheme God, and set heaven and hell at defiance, 
providing they do it with all due courtesy to the 
priests: they may be consummate profligates, but 
it must be according to canonical rule. Crimes 
and vices contravene no law, providing the church 
be respected, and her dues be paid ! But wo to the 
patriot Avho shall w^hisper an insinuation, or print 
an effusion of a noble spirit, bursting with holy in- 
dignation against the hypocrisy, the priestly espion- 
age, and despotism of popery ! This is the only 
unpardonable sin at Rom.e. It can never be forgiven 
him, either in this world, or in purgatory! The 
dungeon cells, placed by papal care, at the bishop's 
service, in each cathedral ; and the cells of the in- 
quisition, and the agonies, and meanings, and shrieks 
of the oppressed, breathed only on the ear of heaven 
— these — these are the overwhelming proofs of po- 



116 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

pery's deadly hostility to the freedom of speech, 
and the press ! And these proofs will, one day, be 
uttered on the ears of all nations, louder than the 
peal of thunder on the summits of the Alleghany ! 

3d. The comparative barbarism of every Roman 
Catholic country, exhibits an irresistible demonstra- 
tion of this hostility to the freedom of the press. 
Villars has illustrated the influence of " the blissful 
Reformation," on learning, and the sciences, in 
general ; and the present condition of popish lands 
exhibits the immutable influence of popery. Just 
in proportion as the Reformation has been extended 
over any land, so have letters flourished there. 
Just in proportion as popery, with all its horrid 
train of debasing superstitions, and pollution, has 
been condensed in clouds, over a people, like the 
darkness of Egypt, that may be felt, — do learning 
and civilization linger there, centuries behind those 
of other nations ! Will any man, for instance, lay 
the literature of Spain in the balance against that of 
England's learned men ? Will any compare the 
literature of Italy, which still lingers in the gloom 
of the tenth century, with the literature of Scot- 
land? Unshackled France, with Naples, or Por- 
tugal? Holland with Catholic Belgium? Wales 
with the native Irish, her own kindred? Or the 
Catholic highlanders with the Protestant lowland- 
ers of Scotland ? 

4th. The eternal barriers thrown in the way of 
the arts and sciences, by papal edicts, and priest- 
ly influence, are afflicting evidences of this.* As 

* Statuary and painting being pressed in, as the auxiliaries 
of a corrupt religion, which has multiplied her gods and god- 
esses, to countless hosts, are the only exceptions we can 
think of. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 117 

late as 1703, Galileo, and the modern astronomy, 
stood condemned in the public registers of Rome ! 
The public condemnation was then dropped, merely 
^ in the annual ban, uttered against innovators. But 
not one concession is known to have been made : 
not one word of vindication was offered by the Ro- 
mish priesthood, on behalf of injured science, and 
its enthusiastic votary, Galileo \ 

In Spain, a list of condemned books, — and they 
are such as sound scholars would pronounce clas- 
sical and standard works, in all Protestant lands, is 
annually appended to the church doors ; and no citi- 
zen is allowed to read these books; or even possess 
them, under civil pains of the most sanguinary na- 
ture. See Burgogne's Modern Spain, ii. p, 276, 
and an able speech of a Spanish patriot lately deliv- 
ered in the Cortes, proves beyond doubt, that ef- 
forts are made to perpetuate this state of things. 
"A sanguinary priesthood," said Don Telesforode 
Trueba, " is sacrificing human victims to the God 
of peace and love ; — men who wish to bring back 
on us the Dark Ages, the age of tyranny, igno- 
rance, and death." 

5th. Nor is this less manifest in the spirit of po- 
pery, in our republic. The rights of private judg- 
ment, and of free discussion by debates, or by the 
press, are most vigorously resisted by the priests. 
In assemblies met for discussions, I have v\ritnessed 
tumults excited by priests, and even a vicar-general. 
We all remember the mob in Mr. M' Clay's church, 
in New- York, which arrested discussion. We 
have the testimony of a most respectable Baptist 
minister, that that mob was excited by a leading 
priest of our city. We all remember the riot in 



118 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Broadway Hall, which dispersed, for that evening, 
The Protestant Association. It was excited by 
hired intoxicated ruffians, calling themselves " Ca- 
tholics." This spirit of violence, and hostility 
to free discussion, is abroad over the land. By this 
means foreign conspirators aim at two objects. 1st. 
They labour to put down freemen's meetings for 
discussion and inquiry among the people. 2d. 
They strive to infuse, into our once happy land, 
that turbulent and infernal spirit which defies and 
weakens all law; paralyzes the authority of the 
magistracy ; makes a mockery of all free institu- 
tions ; and holds up "the weakness of our state, 
and general governments," before the European des- 
potic princes; while they beckon to these, their 
masters, to complete our ruin from abroad, by pour- 
ing in upon us, hundreds of thousands of similar 
vicious and turbulent papists, — the choice spirits of 
mischief, apt to scatter firebrands, arrows, and 
death over the land ; and turn our peaceful repub- 
lic into a revolutionary France, or an Ireland ! 

II. This practical popery, which is thus send- 
ing the waters of bitterness over the land, is putting 
itself forth legitimately, according to its fundamen- 
tal principles and canons. It can act no otherwise, 
consistently. I shall here subjoin some documen- 
tary evidence of tliis. 

1st. The words of the legate of Pope Adrian VL, 
to the Diet of Nurembergh, in the days of Luther : 
" I say, that the pope and emperor ought to be im- 
plicitly obeyed ; the heretics' books burned; and the 
printers and sellers of them duly punished. There is 
no other way to suppress and extinguish the perni- 



civil'and religious liberty. 119 

cious sect of Protestants." Life of Luther, by 
Scott, vol. i. p. 183. 

2. The decree of the Lateran Council, in 1515. 
This is the substance of it, — that no book shall be 
printed without the bishop's license : that those who 
transgressed this decree shall forfeit the whole im- 
pression, which shall be publicly burned ; pay a 
fine of one hundred ducats ; be suspended from 
his business for one year, and be excommunicated ; 
that is, given over to the devil, soul, and body, in 
God's name, and the saints ! and no person allowed 
to trade, or deal, or commune with him! 

3. The decree of the Council of Trent, Session 
4. *' Sed et, &c. — But being desirous also of setting 
bounds to the printers, who, with unlimited bold- 
ness, supposing themselves at liberty to do as they 
please, print editions of the Holy Bible, wdth notes 
and expositions, &c." See more in Cramp, p. 56 ; 
and the original Latin in p. 403. 

4. The Circular Letter of Gregory XVL, the 
present pope, issued in 1832. " Hue spectat deter- 
rima ilia, &c. — Towards this point tends that most 
vile, detestable, and never-to-be-sufficiently-execrated 
liberty of booksellers, namely, of publishing wri- 
tings of whatever kind they please : a liberty lohich 
some persons dare, with such violence of language, 
to demand and promote /" Having next eulogized 
the Council of Trent, for its zeal in issuing the In- 
dex of prohibited books, he thus goes on : — " Cle- 
ment XHL, our predecessor of happy memory, in 
his Circular on the suppression of noxious books," 
(i.e. Protestant books,) "pronounces, — 'We must 
contend with energy, such as the subject requires ; 
and with all our might, exterminate the deadly 



120 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

mischief of so many books ; for the matter of error 
will never be effectually removed, unless the guilty- 
elements of depravity be consumed in the fire." — 
*' The apostolic See has, through all ages, ever 
striven to condemn suspected and noxious" (i. e., 
Protestant) " books, and to wrest them forcibly out 
of men's hands ; it is most clear, how rash, false, 
and injurious to our apostolic See, and fruitful of 
enormous evils to the Christian public, is the doc- 
trine of those who not only reject the censorship of 
books, as too severe and burdensome, but even pro- 
ceed to such a length of wickedness, as to assert, 
that it is contrary to the principles of equal justice; 
and dare deny to the church the right of enacting, 
and employing it." pp. 13, 14, 15. The Latin 
copy of this Circular of the present pope, I have 
in my possession. 

It must be manifest to every one of our fellow- 
citizens, that where such principles, and practices as 
these, bear sway, no republican government can 
possibly exist ; no true liberty can ever gladden the 
heart of man ! Had the patriots, and the great 
body of the people of these states, at the time of our 
glorious revolutionary struggle, been under the 
slavery of these principles, and they would certain- 
ly have been completely under their slavery, had 
they been Roman Catholics, — our liberties had 
never been loved,— nor wooed, — nor fought for ! 
And even supposing it barely possible, that Amer- 
ican Liberty had received her birth, she ^vould have 
languished out a rickety and miserable existence; 
and, finally, have expired a victim under the Ex- 
treme Unction of a popish priest ! ! This is no 
conjecture. Like causes will produce like effects. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 121 

We have painful demonstrations of this on our own 
continent. Cast your eyes over South America, 
and Mexico, once more, and learn wisdom from the 
philosophy of history. Had the ignorance, vice, 
atheism, and priestcraft of these wretched republics, 
at this present time, been the curse and scourge of 
THE OLD THIRTEEN STATES, in '76, neither the 
wisdom of the old congress, nor the skill and 
tact of the glorious Washington, and his brave 
army, could have prevented us from being devour- 
ed and annihilated by the British lion ! But we 
were Protestants; and we were inspired by Pro- 
testant principles and liberty: therefore, by the 
grace of God, we became a nation great, and glo- 
rious, and free ! 

As certainly, therefore, as the same cause has 
been, for these centuries past, producing these same 
deadly effects, in Europe, and on our own conti- 
nent, so certainly, will popery, if it ever should, by 
the wrath of heaven, gain an ascendency here, an- 
nihilate liberty, and pure Christianity in our re- 
public ! So certainly will it convert this land of 
light, liberty, peace, and glory, into the land of 
despotism, and the darkness of the shadow of 
death ; where no freeman can exist, and where it 
would be a burden, and a wearisomeness, for a good 
man to live ! 
11 



122 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

POPERY, WHEREVER IT HAS THE ASCENDENCY, 
INVARIABLY UNITES CHURCH AND STATE. 



The union of civil 'power with spiritual^ an essential mark of 
popery. — Proof .-^American popery will do this as it be- 
tomes assimilated to Italian^ or genuine popery — T^e pa- 
pists already use the icord Hierarchy here — Phis implies 
union of spiritual and civil powei — Proof of this unnatu- 
ral union in popery — Hence the danger of this foreign sect. 



" But laymen most renowned for devilish deeds, 
Laboured at distance, still beiiind the priests I"— POLLOK. 



I BEG to draw the public attention to this essen- 
tial dogma, and practice of popery ; namely, that 
the Romish hierarchy invariably puts forth its influ- 
ence over all lands, in proportion as it gains 
strength, to unite church and state. There is no 
one fact more clearly established by history than 
this ; it is inseparably connected with the papal su- 
premacy ; and an integral part thereof And every 
Roman priest among us, in the service of the 
Italian despot, is taught to believe this dogma to 
be as essential to it as the pope's supremacy. And 
for years they have been labouring to accomplish 
in this country, what exists in every popish coun- 
try, namely, the union of church and state. And 
it is impossible not to see their uneasiness and em- 
barrassment, of late, at the discoveries made rela- 
tive to their foreign relations, and domestic projects. 
Their priests and editors begin to tremble; the 
flimsy veil has proved too transparent to conceal 
their plots and treason. Hence the secret is re- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 123 

vealed, why their denunciations have been so vio- 
lent of late, against those of their protestant fellow- 
citizens, who are roused to a sense of their real 
danger ! This is the maxim of Jesuitism : when- 
ever — hy a discovery — any crime is about to be 
charged on you, bring that very charge, with the 
greatest assurance, against your opporients; and 
overwhelm them with confusion ! Hence, the whole 
popish press, by a simultaneous impulse, put forth 
the most solemn and unblushing denials of interfe- 
rence in political affairs; Hence, every art was put 
in requisition to win credit to these denials of what 
they did, them&elves, verily believe. Hence, those 
savage vituperations hurled at those who have suc- 
cessfully torn the mask from their faces. Hence, 
like men conscious of the truth, sustainable against 
them, by the evidence of European history, for the 
last thousand years, they have anxiously sought to 
draw off the attention of the American family, from 
their secret and overt schemes. Hence their ap- 
propriate union with the infidel, and profane, in 
their clamorous denunciations of the Presbyterians, 
at one time; of the Episcopalians at another: 
while with overwhelming affectation of gravity, 
they cease not to bewail the danger of " a combi- 
nation of all the Protestant sects," to create a union 
of church and state; and to carry on their ambi- 
tious projects against the common safety : for which, 
it seems, nobody cared any thing, but this foreign 
sect, of the pope's subjects ! 

" Vixque tenet lacrymas, quia nil lacrymabile vidit I 
Scarcely refrains he from tears, because lie can see no tear-exciting disas- 
ter I"— Ovid. 

But the affectation of alarm, with all its accom- 



124 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

panying artifices, was too shallow. Everybody 
saw through it. The loud clamours of the thief 
himself, "to stop thief," seldom fails to detect him 
by the very excess of his zeal in clamouring agaiiist 
others ! But, in proportion to the zeal betrayed 
by the Jesuits, in denying their interference with 
politics, as a religious sect ; disclaiming all ideas 
of a foreign conspiracy against our liberties ; and 
just in proportion as they boast, with new-born 
zeal, their pure and disinterested patriotism ; while 
they anxiously charge upon the Protestant 
churches, the very crimes laid at their own door : 
even so are we, in sober earnest, to believe pre- 
cisely the reverse of their asseverations ! 

That the Romish hierarchy has, for the last 
thousand years, been strictly a union of state and 
church, is a fact established by history. No well 
read man can, for a moment, doubt it. 

1st. In every part of Europe and America, 
where the Roman Catholics have full sway, are 
church and state uniformly united. And this 
union is exhibited in the state's abject subservience 
in making popery the exclusive religion ; while 
it has sustained the priests, and their bloody reli- 
gion, by the most sanguinary enactments ! I beg 
to direct you to the history of Spain, which, at 
length, is beginning to raise her head from the 
dust ; and of Austria, Italy, and Naples. There 
every thing is exclusive and sanguinary. Utter a 
word against the priest, or his senseless mummery, 
or refuse to fall down before the wafer-god, and 
the dagger is plunged into your heart! Turn 
your eyes on Mexico and South America. There 
the struggle goes on. The scale of liberty pre- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 125 

ponderates in her favour, just in proportion as the 
priest loses ground, and as each successful blow- 
severs the accursed chains which unite the state 
to the wheels of the church ! 

2d. The bull of the present pope, Gregory XVI., 
will silence all the priests denials on this point. 
Hear how the spiritual head utters his infallible 
dogma ; and commands all the faithful, in all lands, 
to believe and obey. " Nor can we augur," says the 
pope, " more happy results to religion or monar- 
chy, 'from the wishes of those who are anxious 
that the church should be separated from the state ; 
and that the mutual concord of the empire and 
the priesthood should be torn asunder. For it is 
certain that these favourers of the most audacious 
liberty do exceedi7igly fear that concord,^'' &c. " In 
other most sad causes of solicitude by which we have 
been afflicted with more than common pain, there 
have been added certain associations and set meet- 
ings," &c. " Liberty of every kind is proclaimed ; 
tumults are excited against the sacred and civil es- 
tates; even the most holy authority is disputed." And 
on the next page, he tells all magistrates for w^hat 
purpose church and state are united. " Their pow- 
er and authority," he tells them, " were given to 
them not only for the ruling of the loorld, but still 
more for the protection of the church.'''' That is 
to say, the most important business of civil rulers 
and all governments, is to protect, of course by 
laws and by the sword, the Holy Mother Church ! 
See the bull, pp. 18, 19. This is honest and plain 
dealing ! And I beg my fellow-citizens to be as- 
sured, that this letter, or bull, is in every priest's 
hands, and he is in sworn allegiance to this pope, 
11* 



126 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

as his only lord and master, the only superior 
whom he does acknowledge. Every bishop and 
priest must, on their oath, believe and practise this 
doctrine of Rome : or, as the alternative, be per- 
jured men ! 

We have here established two things : 1st. That 
the union of church and state is an essential dogma 
of the popish church ; and is invariably reduced to 
practice, wherever this dangerous sect has the 
power. And we beg our American youth to make 
themselves well acquainted with these facts. If 
they meet with any papist who denies this position, 
call on him to produce his vouchers. If he deny 
it from ignorance of history, let him be illumined. 
If he deny it through knavery, let his conspiracy 
be exposed before all our fellow-citizens. 

2d. The popish union of church and state is of 
the- most mischievous kind. In Britain, there is a 
union of state and church. It is obvious to every 
student of history that this is a portion of the ma- 
lignant remains of the iron age, that has escaped 
thfe purifying zeal of the glorious Reformers. But 
let me beg the attention of the American youth to 
one marked and essential difference between the 
British union of church and state and that of the 
Romish hierarchy. In England, the state makes 
a tool of the church. The state takes care to put 
in her oAvn creatures, to lead that church into what- 
ever measures government may deem expedient 
and politically profitable to the men in power. 
But in the Romish politics, the church and the 
priesthood invariably make a tool of the state. 
Examples and proofs are spread out profusely over 
European history. Charles V. and Francis of 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 127 

France, rivals as they were, were the perfect tools 
of priestcraft. Even Charles V, consented to be 
occasionally the veriest catspaw of the pope ! He 
consented to be absolved from his coronation 
oath, which bound him to protect the Moors in 
Spain. And by an act of wilful and shocking 
perjury, from which the pope absolved him, he 
delivered millions of the Moors to the " Infernal 
Inquisition!" Charlemagne, with all his warlike 

f greatness, was a miserable tool of the pope ! He 
aid the foundation of the pope's temporal power 
over European magistrates. Louis XIV., with 
all his triumphs and glory, was a contemptibly 
priest-ridden man ! It was in doing a penance for 
" his irregularities,^'^ that he gave up the innocent 
Hugonots to the pope's hired assassins, by his 
treacherous act of revoking the edict of Nantz ! 
The Jesuit, his confessor, granted him absolution 
from a certain " mortal sin," on 07ie condition. And 
that was, that he should deliver up these Protest- 
ants of France to be murdered and exiled ! And 
what those kings have been in subservience to 
priestcraft, that, their subordinates the magistracy 
of all ranks have been to the emissaries of Rome. 

Such are the canonical doctrines and practices of 
the popish church, on this important point. Her 
bishops and priests, of course, disavow all of them, 
with great gravity, and affectation of horror ! This 
they do in their intercourse with Protestants, and 
in their English books spread out like clap-nets, 
before their easy and good-natured fellow-citizens. 
Yet, these intolerant and dangerous principles are 
earnestly propagated by every bishop, by every 
priest, by every lady superior, by every monk, and 



128 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

nun, black, white, ana gray : and in every popish 
college, and seminary in our republic. 

Common branches of literature receive very lit- 
tle attention, by these hired servants of the pope. It 
never was their object to make scholars of Protes- 
tant youth. Their anxiety to impress on our sons 
and daughters, these intolerant principles, — the es- 
sential elements of popery, — which they hold ne- 
cessary to man's salvation, — demonstrate that they 
are playing a deep and deadly game at the bid- 
ding of their foreign masters. 

But where such principles are sedulously propa- 
gated, and reduced to practice by a heartless priest- 
craft, and its miserable victims, — as in every land 
where popery reigns, — there is an end to all civil 
AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ! Memorable are the 
words of Judge Story, who has gleaned the wisdom 
of his remark from his deep learning in history : 
" Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or 
last, bring in, and re-establish civil liberty. But 
where it is suppressed, the church establishment 
will, first, or last, become the engine of despotism ; 
and will overthrow every vestige of political 
right." 

Now, what object can priests in the United 
States have, in propagating such dogmas on o'eli- 
gious liberty ? What object can they have in view 
in all this, but to root out of our youth, the love of 
freedom, and devotion to our republican principles ? 
No other conceivable reason can propel these for- 
eign emissaries to the course they are now pursu- 
ing ? No literary man, no polished mind, no hu- 
mane being, — not even a Roman priest himself, 
can love the monstrous system of popery, merely 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 129 

for 'poperi/s sake. The disgusting absurdity of 
transubstantiation, the shocking idolatry of the 
mass, the boundless immorality of the whole sys- 
tem, the revolting pollution of the confession, these 
hells of lewdness, and murder, — the monasteries, 
and nunneries, — can be respected, by none but 
those who love wickedness, like demons, purely for 
its own sake. It is not to be doubted, indeed, that 
many slothful beings, and many sons of poor no- 
bles, and many epicures devoted to ignorance and 
sensuality, have " retired from the world and be- 
come religieuseV But these are not found here. 
These are in the richly endowed monasteries 
abroad, and in the voluptuous climate of Italy, and 
Spain. The religieuse sent in upon us, are men of 
a very different stamp. Educated expressly for this 
field of enterprise ; well disciplined ; specious, con- 
ciliating ; full of courtesy and flattery ; loud in praise 
of letters, and republicanism, — they cannot be sup- 
posed to love popery, for its pleasures of indolence ; 
or the sensuality of fat contented ignorance, sleep- 
ing in its cloisters. No, they are a different class 
of men. They are trained for action : they vow 
unlimited obedience to their foreign masters : po- 
pery is at once their mask, and their weapon. 
They love and propagate it merely as a terrible in- 
strument, admirably adapted to their purpose of 
creating dissatisfaction among the people ; exciting 
lawless mobs ; undermining law and justice ; sap- 
ping the very foundations of civil authority ; and 
bringing politicians, and magistrates under the in- 
fluence, and dictation of the Jesuits : and thence 
breaking down the free institutions of our country. 
All this they do in order to obtain the extinction of 



130 POPERY, THE ENEMY, &C. 

civil liberty, here. And for what purpose ? Why, 
for the same purpose kept steadily in view, by the 
same Jesuits, and their general Father Luigi For- 
tes, in Europe. That is, to prop up the tottering 
thrones of the European despots, who send them 
out, and feed them, and pay them, for their present 
conspiracy ! 

The connexion of popery with this mischief, we 
shall illustrate more fully, in the course of our dis- 
cussion. And here, as preparatory to that, it is 
proper to remark, that in order to achieve the ob- 
jects of this foreign conspiracy against us, it is only 
necessary to eSeci'three prominent objects : name- 
ly, — To corrupt the public morals: to imbue the 
young and rising generation with the principles 
of absolutism ; and to create a vicious and turbu- 
lent people. 

Now, popery is the completest weapon, under 
heaven, to consummate this threefold mischief in a 
nation. And every man who has ears to hear, and 
eyes to see, cannot but perceive these Jesuit emis- 
saries, actually now at their secret and damning 
work, — by their system of immoral doctrines : by 
their secret masonic institution of the confessional: 
by their incessant and impudent attempts to draw 
into their seminaries, our Protestant youth, male 
and female : and, finally, by pouring in upon our 
shores hundreds of thousands, annually, of papists, 
the very dregs and jail sweepings of Europe ! 



PART SECOND. 



SHOWING THAT POPERY IS A FATAL ENEMY TO 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 



- CHAPTER I. 

Popery^ a singular anomaly — Its government — Its claim, to 
supremacy— View of the rise of tJiis ambitious claim — T%e 
Jirst claim to be universal bishop — Rise of the pope^s tem- 
poral power over princes and kings — The pope still claims 
supremacy in temporals. 



*' Europe has lon^ exhibited the singular spectacle of priests being the 
judges, and kings being the pope's hangmen I"— Dr. Jortin. 



The whole system of popery is a monstrous 
anomaly in the moral and political world. Seizing 
advantage of the darkness in which it envelopes its 
votaries, it imposes on them, a fabulous mythology 
of saints, relics, and mass-worship. In the place 
of Christianity, is substituted a system of ludicrous 
fictions ; ridiculous adventures of ridiculous saints. 
Traditions and lying wonders, are put in the stead 
of "the truth as it is in Jesus:" the most despotic 
canons and dogmas in the stead of the pure law of 
God: crude, and puerile rites, and arrant buffoon- 
ery, in the place of the solemn sacraments of God. 
An insufferable yoke of bondage is substituted for 
the holy services of the sanctuary. A worldly 
kingdom of spiritual politicians, who, guiltier than 
African slave dealers, " traffic in the souls of men ;" 



132 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

is reared, instead of the kingdom of our Eedeemer, 
" which is not of this world." A conclave of truc- 
ulent tyrants, and mere men of pleasure, are put 
in the place of the unassuming ministry of Christ ! 

Its government is a no less singular anomaly. It 
is neither that of man, nor that of angels : it is 
neither spiritual nor civil : it is a monstrous union 
of state and church. Hence the inspired writer 
gave it the name of the beast. 

In its pathway to supremacy, and in every act of 
its politico-ecclesiastical despotism, it has exhibited 
one continuous course of treachery, perfidy, cruelty, 
atheism, war, massacre ! It has long ago reached 
the climax of the grand apostacy. 

This spirit of antichrist was early at work ; even 
the apostles contended for a supremacy, — a lordly 
superiority. But, then, it was before they were 
endued with the Holy Ghost. Our Lord cast that 
devil out of them all, — Judas Iscariot alone except- 
ed. And it is to be feared that they are his lineal 
descendants, who have retained this evil spirit unto 
this day. Our Lord charged his ministers not to 
receive, nor even allow among them the lordly 
claims of the Gentiles, nor to exercise dominion 
over each other, seeing they were all on a footing 
of equality. 

Among an artless and charitable people, like the 
primitive Christians, who did *' each esteem other 
better than themselves," it would have been impos- 
sible on the part of any one, to make any great 
stride to power. Their simple court was the as- 
sembly of the elders. The most venerable man 
among them was chosen to preside. The title of 
*' bishop," or superintendent, being at first common 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 133 

to each pastor, was, by degrees, applied to him who 
was the superintendent over the pastors, met in the 
ecclesiastical court. This was the first step on the 
part of the ambitious. The next was, to create a 
jpermanent president, that is, a permanent bishop, 
over the bishops met in court. The next step in 
the scale of the Hierarchy, was to elect this bishop 
for life, to direct all the Councils. This invested 
him with power, and much consequence. He was 
looked up to, as being that in the church, which 
the presiding magistrate was in the state. Hence 
his presence, and his consent, were deemed a neces- 
sary condition in every measure of government. 

What was, at first, yielded voluntarily to the 
merits of the man, was afterward, by ambitious 
men, claimed, of right, as due unto the office. Hence 
the true origin of his power, as the bishop. This, 
as an old writer observes, " is the first stage of the 
office : this he calls evangelical episcopacy ^^ such 
as the New Testament exhibits it. 

The unhappy policy of Constantine the Great, 
did incredible mischief to the early Christian 
church. He first combined, then wedded the church 
to the state; and gave wealth and power to the 
ministry. No sooner did the ambitious men of let- 
ters see the Christian ministry popular, and the 
sure pathway to wealth and honours, than they 
pushed themselves, with indecent haste, into it. 
They made a trade of it, as did the orator of his 
logic, science, and eloquence. They were, many 
of them, pagans and atheists in heart ; and minis- 
ters only in name and dress ! Then arose the hot 
contest for power ! See Dr. G. Campbell's Lect. 
on Church Government. Lect. v. and vi. 
12 



134 POPERY, THE ENEMY, &C. 

Among the early and strong indications of the 
spirit of antichrist, were the claims set up by the 
rich and haughty presbyters, over the country and 
village pastors. And it is not difficult to conceive 
how haughty their claims would be, when they 
were once invested with perpetual presidency over 
the bishops. These ambitious men, once invested 
wdth this power, in the metropolis of a country, 
such as Constantinople, and Rome, were not con- 
tent with power over their former associates, and 
equals. They were not satisfied that they w^ere, in 
the church, what the chief magistrate of the metrop- 
olis was, in the civil government. They became, 
each, metropolitans, in their own country. They 
did not stop here : the same lust of power which 
propelled them to lord it over their own brethren, 
soon urged them on, with insatiable desires, to be 
above their brother metropolitan. The rivalship 
ceased not, until one of them was made the ghostly 
head. For each aimed at being that in the church 
Catholic, which the emperor was in the empire ! 

This exhibited the true rise of the other two 
kinds of Episcopacy, according to the above 
author, — namely, — ''the human Episcopacy, ^^ so 
called because it is wholly of human invention. 
Constantine may, perhaps, be named as its founder. 
The other, and last kind, is '* the diabolical Epis- 
copacy :^^ it is that of popery! 

The patriarch of Constantinople, and some other 
ambitious men of the Eastern churches, have all 
the right which antiquity, and priority of claim, 
can give them. They were the first in the imiver- 
sal church, who set up claims to the supremacy of 
UNIVERSAL BISHOP. This was long before the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 135 

more modest Roman bishop had, perhaps, conceived 
the ambitious project of popery. St. Gregory, the 
Roman pope, wrote his famous philippic against 
the Eastern bishops; and, unguardedly, for the 
honour of all Roman popes, he pronounced "that 
man, antichrist, actually come, who should set up 
such claims." Such are the words of this Roman 
saint, in his epistles. He was either more honest 
than any of his successors ; or, like others of his 
rivals, he was anxious only to clear the field for 
Rome, and himself! It is certain, however, that 
the boundless ambition of Rome, in the seventh 
century, triumphed over the ambition of the east- 
ern bishops. And the event has revealed the fact, 
that antichrist, — even pope St. Gregory himself be- 
ing witness, — was born, and cradled in Rome ! 

The next stride of the pope towards supremacy, 
was to gain an ascendency over the power of the 
bishops, which was still vastly great. This strug- 
gle was long and arduous : but, at length, the pope 
was successful. He had now reached his spirit- 
ual summit of ambition. He was " bishop over 
bishops,'' throughout the Catholic or universal 
church, as he facetiously called his usurped do- 
minion ! See Barrow's Papal Supremacy, p. 146. 
New- York edition ; Supposition V. 

Ambition has no bounds. The pope was the 
Lord God in " the Catholic church." But there 
was that Mordecai, the civil magistrate — ^the em- 
peror, sitting before him in the gate of the pal- 
ace ! He could not rest while a royal head wore 
a crown of power above him. Like his ambitious 
prototype, "he would rather reign in hell, than 
serve in heaven !" The first important step, now, 



136 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

was to wrest from the emperor, the right to sum- 
mon councils of the clergy. This struggle lasted 
for ages. And, at length, by the degeneracy of 
the bishops and the magistrates, this unbounded 
power was lodged in the Roman pope's hands. 
Barrow, p. 277—310. 

Another movement in his stride to civil power 
was his attempt to wrest from the temporal princes 
their claim of rights to preside in all councils. 
He entered the lists, and set up his own claim to 
it, hy divine right, the usual cant of royal and 
priestly fanatics, namely, Dei gratia, by the grace 
of God ! This also, after the struggle of ages, the 
pope attained. 

The next and crowning victory was his reach 
to temporal power in plenitude. This, pope after 
pope pursued, with unflinching perseverance. One 
pope attained in process of time, and by the most 
flagrant and revolting crimes, the exarchate of 
Ravenna; to this were added the kingdom of 
Lombardy, and the civil power of the city of Rome. 
Thus the pope obtained the triple crown. And as 
he prudently places the civil power beneath the 
spiritual, this crown is surmounted by the cross, 
which is fixed on the apex of his tiara. 

One step more remained, in order to his reach- 
ing the summit of his throne. It was a small 
thing to rank with petty princes. The fisherman's 
successor disdained such petty rivalship! He as- 
pired to great things. And how irresistible was 
the papal argument. *'I am the lineal heir of 
Peter, the Rock. I am all that which Christ did 
make Peter. But Christ stripped himself of all his 
power in heaven and on earth ; he has given it to 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 137 

Peter. Christ does nothing now ; he has no pow- 
er in heaven, or in earth. I, the pope, have all 
power above, or on the earth, and eke, in hell! 
Hence, I have power over all governors, and magis- 
trates!" 

It is true, the ambitious fanatic did not stop to 
prove that Peter ever was at Rome ; or ever had 
such power ; or that he is his successor, in prefer- 
ence to the apostle John, who actually lived forty 
years after Peter's death ; and so was best entitled 
to be his successor. Yet, nevertheless, the popes 
had irresistible logic ! For the very ravings of a 
pope, who has his millions of hungry and unprin- 
cipled priests always at his nod, will be glorified 
as judicious reasons, and most unanswerable argu- 
ments. These priests are fed by the success of 
their impostures. And they are gone forth to 
subdue all men by this papal logic, and by fire and 
sword, when convenient, to the belief of the pope's 
civil and spiritual supremacy ! 

The following documents will show us the true 
nature of the pope's claims to temporal, as well as 
spiritual supremacy. I shall arrange them under 
four distinct heads, which we shall take up in 
order. 

12* 



138 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER II. 

THE HEAD OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 
CLAIMS TEMPORAL, AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL 
POWER, IN ALL LANDS. 

Proof of this — Firsts — From Romish doctors of standing 
authority — Blasius — Bzovius — Mandnus — mfoscovius — 
Scioppius — Salmeron — Maynardus — Turrecrementa — 
Cardinal Pole — Azorius — St. Thomas Aquinas — Bellar- 
mine — The doctors of Salamanca and Valladolid, 



" Hoc volo ; sic jubeo : stat pro ratione voluntas. 
This I will ; so I order : my supreme will is a substitute for all reasons."— 

Juvenal VI. 219. 



First. We adduce the testimony of the standard 
writings of Romish doctors. The evidence of their 
public approbation by the church is this : they are 
not put into the Index Prohibitory. This — be it 
remembered — is equal to the high papal recom- 
mendation of them. Some of them, such as Bel- 
larmine, were put into the Index Expurgatory, 
Bellarmine, for instance, was censured for the pas- 
sages I shall quote from him, on account of his not 
going the whole length of flattery. He admitted 
the pope's temporal power indirect, but not direct. 
For thus daring to shear off some of the pope's 
horns, he was censured by his Holiness. Hence 
the value of such testimony. We are astonished 
at the boldness of these sycophants. Yet even they 
were severely rebuked by the pope for not ventur- 
ing all lengths. Hence, we can form an estimate 
of the pope's unbounded ambition, and pretences to 
power. 

Blasius, in his book De Rom. Eccles. dignitate, 
pp. 34. 83, 84, says, *' Unicus Dei, &c., the pope is 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 139 

the only vicar of God, his power is over all the world, 
Pagan as well as Christian ; the only vicar of 
God who has supreme power, and empire over 
all kings and princes of the earth." 

Bzovius, in his book De Rom. Pontif. cap. 46. 
p. 621. " Papa summam, &c. The pope has su- 
preme power even over kings and Christian princes, 
who may correct them, and remove them from 
office, and in their place put others." See Demou- 
lin's Papal Usurpations, p. 14, &c. folio. 

Mancinus, De jure princip. Rom. Lib. 3. cap. i. 
2, says " Papa, &c. The pope is lord of the whole 
world. The pope, as pope, has temporal power ; 
his temporal power is most eminent. All other 
powers depend on the pope." 

Moscovius, De Majestat. Eccles. Milit. Lib. i. 
cap. 7, says, *' Pontifex, &c. The pope is universal 
judge ; he is king of kings, and lord of lords. 
God's tribunal and the pope's tribunal are the 
same. All other powers are his subjects." See 
also Pithou, Corpus Jur. Canon. 29 Decret. Titul. 
7. cap. 3. and Binii Concilia, ix. 54. 

Scioppius, in his Eccles. Jacob. Mag. Brit. Reg. 
Oppos. cap. 138, 139, 241, says " Catholici non 
tantum, &c. Catholics believe the pope's power 
to be not only ministerial, but imperial, and 
supreme ; so that he has the right to direct, and 
compel, with the power of life and of death." 

Salmeron, Comment. Evan. Hist. tom. iv. pars 
3: Tract. 4, p. 411. declares \h^i:—'' The pope 
has supreme power over all the earth; over all 
kings and governments, to command and enforc*" 
them," &c. 

Maynardus, in his book, De privileg. Eccles. 



140 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Artie. 5. sect. 19, and 21 ; Artie. 6, sect. 1, and 11 ; 
Artie. 13, sect. 19, says, "Magistrates are the 
pope's subjects." — '* The pope has power in the 
whole world, in temporals and spirituals." — "Stat- 
utes made by laymen do not bind the clergy." 

Turrecrementa, Card. Ad can. alius, 3, caus. 15 ; 
Quest. 6. and in his book De Eccles. Lib. ii. cap. 
14, says, " Papa potest, &c. The pope can depose 
emperors and kings; he may lawfully absolve 
subjects from their oath of allegiance. If the king 
(or chief magistrate) be manifestly a heretic," — that 
is, a protestant, — "the church may depose him." 

Cardinal Pole, De Concil. p. 91, octavo copy, 
says, " Petri cathedram, &c. The chair of St. 
Peter, Christ has placed above all thrones of em- 
perors, and all tribunals of kings." See also De- 
moulin, p. 14. 

Azorius, in his Insiit. Moral. Tom. ii. Lib. 10, 
cap. 6, says, — " Imperator, &c. The emperor is 
the pope's subject, even in temporal matters." 

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Opusc. contra Grce- 
cos, teaches that, " It is essential to man's salvation 
to be subject to the pope's power." 

The same saint, in his book De Regim. Princ. 
Lib. iii. cap. 10, and 19, teaches that ''the pope, as 
supreme king of all the icorld^ may impose taxes 
on all Christians, and destroy towns and castles 
for the preservation of Christianity ! /" See also 
JBarrow On the pope^s supremacy, p. 16, 20. 

Bellarmine's views are fully given in his book, 
De Roman, Pontif Lib. V. cap. 6, p. 1094, mihi. 
" The pope's spiritual power is indirect, yet the 
superior one : even as the government of temporal 
things is far inferior to spiritual and eternal things. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 141 

Hence this power of the pope, though indirect, is 
over all, and above all civil power, men, and 
things, in a Christian country. " Si autem tale, 
&c. If, however, any such thing may happen, 
the spiritual power can, and ought to restrain the 
temporal, by every means and way which shall 
seem necessary for that purpgse." 

Again, — " Quantum ad personas, &c. Inas- 
much as it regards persons, the pope cannot, as 
pope, ordinarily depose temporal princes, even for 
a just cause, in the same manner as he can depose 
bishops, that is, as an ordinary judge : however, he 
can change kingdoms, and take away the power 
from one, and confer it on another, — tanquam sum- 
mus princeps spiritualis, as a spiritual supreme 
prince ; if it be necessary to.the salvation of souls." 

Again ; — *' Quantum ad leges, &c. As it re- 
gards laws, the pope cannot, as pope, ordinarily 
enact a civil law, or confirm and abrogate the laws 
of princes, because he is not himself a political 
prince of the church ; however, he can do all these 
things just mentioned (enact and abrogate civil 
laws) if any civil law be necessary for men's salva- 
tion, and yet kings will not enact it; or, if any 
civil law be injurious for man's salvation, and yet 
kings will not abrogate it." 

I shall here quote the famous passage of this 
cardinal, in which he sets forth the pope's power 
in temporals, and in spirituals, with a witness. 
" Si autem papa erraret, &c. If the pope should 
err by enjoining vices, or prohibiting virtues, still 
the church is bound to believe vice to be virtue, 
and virtue vice, unless she would wish to sin 
against conscience. For the church is bound in 



142 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

doubtful matters to acquiesce in the judgment of 
the chief ^pontiff : and do tvhatever he enjoins ; and 
not do what he forbids : and under fain of mortal 
sin^ she is bound to believe that whatever he enjoins 
is virtue ; whatever he prohibits is vice,^^ Bell. 
De Rom, Pont. Lib. iv. cap. 5.* 

The sum of his argument is this : — When the 
good of the Roman church requires it, (and the 
pope is judge of that,) " the pontiff can enact 
civil laws for a people ; he can confirm them ; and 
abrogate them at his will, as supreme spiritual 
prince; he can erect kingdoms;! transfer thrones ; 
depose magistrates, kings, and emperors ; and by 
divine right, he can rescind all obligations of citi- 
zens to their government ; and all allegiance of a 
people to their chief magistrate." 

* These lines in Italics are oniitted in my copy of Bellar- 
mine, which, as appears from an inscription m it, belonged to 
the Jesuit College of Bamberg. But they are copied from the 
edition used by the Royal Commissioners in their 8th Report 
on Irish Education, p. 344. 

t The Duke of Dalmatia was created a king, and his domin- 
ions erected into a kingdom, by Pope Gregory VII. in A. D. 
1076 : he was proclaimed Idng, at Salona, by that pope's Le- 
gate ! Thus a wretched priest at Rome dictated to a whole 
nation, and its rulers, what kind of government they should 
>iave ! See Mosheim, Church Hist. Cent. xi. part 2, ch. 2. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 143 



CHAPTER III. 

THE POPE CLAIMS TEMPORAL, AS WELL AS SPIR- 
ITUAL POWER. 



•* He shall speak great words against the Most High ; and think to change 
times, and laws I"— Daniel. 



Second. Let us examine the Canon law on this 
point This law is of the highest authority, in the 
Romish church. There is a bull of Pope Gregory 
XIII., prefixed to the Corpus Juris Canonici, sol- 
emnly ratifying these laws. Hence no orthodox 
papist can read, without indignation, the Jesuitical 
answers of the Maynooth Romish professors, before 
the royal commissioners, in 1826, on this topic. 
Professor Slevin ventured, with astonishing assur- 
ance, to say, that " circumstances have undergone a 
great change ; and these decretals of Pope Grego- 
ry/ XL must fall, seeing the ground vwrk of his 
decretals has been removed.''^ See 8 Report, supra, 
p. 242, note. Does this unknown and obscure 
man, or his associates, take on them to rescind the 
solemn Canon Law of the Roman Catholic church? 
Have these men forgotten the claims of the pope, 
and church, to infallibility ? Shall we abide by the 
Canon laws, the unrepealed statutes of the infalli- 
ble pope, and church, or shall we listen to these ob- 
scure Jesuits of Ireland, who attempted to palm off 
on the British public, their private opinions for 
Canon Law ? Can any man of the least reflection 
be deceived by these Jesuits, palming on the British 
public, their own private conjectures, and newly as- 



144 POPERY, THE ENEMY OP 

sumed liberalism, as the genuine popery of the 
Canon Law, and the Vatican 1- 

We quote Canon Law, therefore, as having as 
solemn an obligation on every true papist, as the 
common laws of the land have upon us personally, 
as citizens. 

This law vests in the pope, and church, a power 

TO DISPENSE WITH OATHS AND VOWS OF ALLEGI- 
ANCE. Hence, it puts into the pope's hands, the 
supremacy of power to set the people of any na- 
tion free from allegiance to their government ; and 
to set aside any oath, which a magistrate can ad- 
minister. Here is an extract of the law. Can. 
auctoritatis, 2, caus. 15, quest. 6, part 2. "A fide- 
litatis etiam juramento, &c. — The Roman pontiff 
can absolve persons even from the oath of allegi- 
ance, when he deposes rulers from their dignity." 

We have also three canons to the same effect. 
See Gratian. Can. Alius, 3 : — Can. Nos sanctorum, 
4: — and Can. Juratos, 5, caus. 15, Gluaest. 6. See 
Demoulin, p. 21. 

The glossa of John Semeca in Gratian, asks, — 
" For what sins may the emperor (or a magistrate) 
be deposed ?" The answer is this : — " Pro quoli- 
bet, &c. — For any sin, if he be incorrigible ; and 
not only for his sins, but if he do unprofitable/ man- 
age his regal powerV See Glossa, ad Can. Si pa- 
pa 6. Dist. 40. The power of judging when a 
magistrate does " manage his civil power unprofit 
ably," is also vested in the pope. See Can. Alius, 
2. Caus. 15. Gluaest. 6. — Demoulin, p. 21. Pope 
Zachary acted according to the letter of this law, 
when he deposed the king of France. 

By Canon Law the pope is invested with power 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 145 

to annul any civil law that may injure the papal 
interests. Here is the law. Corpus Jur. Canon. 
Lib. vi. Decretal, cap. 9. " Non valeat, (fee. — All 
laws by which the office of a heresy detector is 
obstructed, or retarded, are null and void." 

Again, cap. 19, p. 142. *'Bona, &c. — The goods 
of heretics are rightfully confiscated." Thus, in 
Austria, Spain, or in Mexico, whatever appeal the 
oppressed may make to the civil law, it is all in 
vain. The ghostly tribunal confiscates his goods ; 
and not only is the father, and protector of a family, 
torn away by the spiritual ruffians ; but every arti- 
cle of property, and even the last morsel of food, 
are abstracted from the mother, and her weeping 
children. 

Again, cap. 6. p. 135, — "Ordinarii, &c. — Pre- 
lates, vicars-general, and their delegates, and inquis- 
itors, may enforce persons who have secular juris- 
diction to execute their sentence upon heretics," 
Thus, according to the very letter of the Canon 
Law, ** priests are constituted judges in civil mat- 
ters : and kings, and magistrates, are ' the pope's 
hangmen !' " 

The following I copy from the famous Decretal 
of Pope Gregory IX. Lib. v. Titul. 7. cap. 13. 
*' Moneantur, &c. — Let the secular powers be ad- 
monished and induced ; and, if necessary, let them 
be compelled by church censures, that, as they de- 
sire to be esteemed among the faithful, so for the 
defence of the faith, they publicly take an oath, that 
from the lands under their jurisdictions, they will, 
with all their might, study to exterminate all her- 
etics denounced by the church, &c." *' If they shall 
refuse, they shall be excommunicated : if they still 
13 



146 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

refuse, they shall be deposed, their subjects absolved 
from their oath of fidelity; and 'their land set 
forth to be occupied by Catholics, who, after ex- 
terminating the heretics, may possess it without con- 
tradiction, &c.' " 

It is curious to see, how the Professors of May- 
nooth College try to get over this appalling law. 
" The Lateran Council which enacted this,'^ says 
Dr. Slevin, " was not purely an ecclesiastical coun- 
cil, but a mixed one : partly secular, partly ecclesi- 
astical." And he quotes, with approbation, these 
words of Cardinal Damian ; — " Quod cum, &c. — 
By the cement of charity, the king exists in the 
Roman pope, and the pope in the king : the former, 
when there is a cause, punishes the delinquents, 
with forensic power ; and the king, surrounded by 
his bishops, will, by the authority of the Canons, 
dictate laws for the spiritual direction of souls." 

That is to say, because the pope contrives so to 
combine church with state, that " the king exists in 
the Roman pope, and the pope in the king ;" and, 
that moreover, this power of the pope shall be par- 
amount to all civil laws and magistrates, — ^there- 
fore, there is no danger in it ; and therefore it is 
not true that the pope claims any civil power! ! ! 

And he adds, with consummate skill, — " This de- 
cree did not respect sovereign princes, but petty 
powers;" and, moreover, they were enjoined "to 
exterminate heretics, — not heretics as they are in 
our days, peaceable citizens, enjoying the protec- 
tion of the laws ; but heretics who spread danger- 
ous doctrines, &c." That is to say, — the pope only 
turned petty princes loose on heretics ; and these 
heretics were the feeble minority, who disturbed 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 147 

others by claiming their natural rights. They were 
different heretics from those peaceable heretics, who 
are the majority in a country ! Though they all 
hold the same doctrines, and all observe the same 
practices ; it is lawful for the pope to employ his 
servants, the "petty princes," and magistrates, to 
exterminate them, who are the feeble minority ; 
but it is not lawful to exterminate the same here- 
tics, who are "peaceable citizens," because they 
are the majority in a nation ! The reason of this 
admirable logic is irresistible. Those who try to 
exterminate them would run the hazard of being 
exterminated themselves. See 8 Rep. p. 241, &c. 

We shall close with an analysis of the bull In 
coena Domini : which will prove to the most in- 
credulous, that the pope claims unbounded tempo- 
ral power ; and that his priests fully accord to him 
all these claims. As it might be expected, how- 
ever, they studiously avoid the concession of this 
before the American family. For the Jesuits are 
not so weak as to plead guilty, or even to admit an 
insinuation of what they know would, if admitted, 
cover them with infamy ! This is the only way 
that such men as Bishop England, and Mr. Hughes, 
have recourse to, in order to escape the public odi- 
um. The former stands forward before the United 
States, and with unblushing eifrontery, denies that 
this bull is annually published, which his church, 
and his master, the pope, have solemnly command- 
ed him to publish annually, under pains of rebellion, 
and a mortal sin. And the latter, when called on to 
publish a copy of this bull in his Catholic Herald, 
affects to deny its existence; knows nothing of the 



148 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

thing, — " has no copy of it, and, therefore, cannot 
publish it." 

Let us set before these two Jesuits the words of 
this bull ; section 29, — '* Ut processus, &c. — That 
the processes themselves, and these present letters, 
may be made more known, in virtue of canonical 
obedience, we do strictly charge and command all 
and singular, — that they publish them once annu- 
ally, or oftener, if expedient, when the major part 
of the people are assembled." 

" They do not possess a copy of it, — and cannot 
publish it !" says this Jesuit. Here are the words 
of the bull, sect. 25 — 30. — "Episcopi, nee non, 
rectores, &c. Bishops, and rectors, and curates, 
and presbyters of every order, shall have tvith them 
a transcript of this bull, and shall diligently read 
and study to understand itP 

We now present the outlines of this notorious 
document. 

In section sixth, the pope utters his curse " on 
all civil powers who impose new taxes without the 
consent of the Roman court." 

In the 15th section, he curses magistrates, who 
" take away the jurisdiction of all benefices, and 
tithes, or other spiritual causes, from the cogni- 
zance of the court of Rome." Hence, if our courts 
take up a cause of quarrel between the priests, or 
laymen, about moneys due to " the church^ or 
" any spiritual property, ^^ instead of referring it 
simply to the foreign judge, they come under the 
papal curse. 

In the 17th, he curses all who hinder priests 
and ecclesiastics, from exerting their ghostly juris- 
diction ; or who shall appeal to a civil court for re- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 149 

dress, "to procure prohibitions, and penal man- 
dates against these priestly courts, &c." 

In the 18th, he curses "all who take away the 
priests' and church's property." At the Reforma- 
tion, the priests were made to disgorge their ill- 
gotten " goods and gear," which they had abstracted 
by fraud and imposture. For demanding back their 
own, the Protestant world has been put under the 
pope's weightiest curse. 

In the 19th, he curses "those who, without ex- 
press license from the Roman pontiff, impose taxes 
or tribute on Roman prelates, priests, monasteries, 
or churches, &c." 

In the 20th, he utters the doom of judges and 
magistrates, who shall " sit in judgment on a bishop, 
priest, or ecclesiastic, without express license from 
the Holy See!" 

In the 22d, the pope declares this bull, and these 
sentences of doom, binding forever, unless revoked 
by the pope for the time being. In the 24th, he 
curses bishop and priest, who shall give absolution 
to any one under these dooms, " in face of these 
presents ;" and he declares that " he will proceed to 
severer spiritual, and temporal punishments, as he 
shall think most convenient." 

Lastly : — This extraordinary document is intro- 
duced with these words : " This bull — is always 
pronounced at Rome, and by all Roman priests, on 
Thursday before Easter." It has received the sanc- 
tion, ^id additions, from at least twenty popes. See 
Bullarium Magnum Romanum. And it is closed 
with the assurance, that "if any shall infringe on 
these letters, and this bull, or oppose them, he shall 

13* 



150 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

certainly incur the wrath of Almighty God, and of 
St. Peter and St. Paul.'' 

It is, therefore, manifestly evident, that this bull 
is in full force : and consequently, all these griev- 
ances are to be effectually righted against us, 
when the Romish church shall gain suiSicient pow- 
ers in our country. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 151 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE POPE OF ROME CLAIMS AND EXERCISES TEM- 
PORAL, AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL POWER. 

Proof of this continued — Third: From the acts and doings 
of the popes — They exercised temporal power over the civil 
governments of Europe — The first universal bishop — not 
at Rome — Instances of various popes tyrannizing over civil 
rulers. 



" The hypocrite in mask ! He was a man, 
Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven, 
To serve the devil in!" Pollok. 



Third : — The insufferable arrogance of the pa- 
pal court, increased in an exact proportion to the 
reign of ignorance, over the brutalized nations of 
Europe, and its own accumulation of riches. In 
early times, the extravagant claims of power were 
not conceived. Even Gregory the saint, and pope, 
was at first, moderate. Before becoming universal 
bishop, or the pope par excellence, he actually rebu- 
ked his brother, the patriarch of Constantinople, for 
the heinous sin of setting up for the pope. He af- 
terward discovered, however, that the sin did not 
consist in claiming to be universal bishop, or the 
pope : but in the Eastern bishop's setting up claims 
to it over him of Rome I In denouncing the would- 
be pope of Constantinople, he gravely alarmed the 
world with the intelligence that antichrist was born 
— in the East ! He, the infallible, may have erred 
as to the locality of the birthplace. But antichrist 
certainly was born ; for he lived in the person of 
this same Gregory. 

However, it is certain that he claimed no power 



152 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

over the civil government. He addressed the em- 
peror as his lord, by the grace of God, superior to 
all men, to whom he was subject P See St. Greg. 
Epist. ii. 26 : and iv. 32. Also Barrow, p. 27. 

But his successors in Rome, in due time, made 
the same discovery in temporals, that he had done 
in spirituals. They found out that the iniquity of 
trenching on the rights of civil governments con- 
sisted, — not in the Roman pope's doing the deed, — 
but in the Eastern bishop's daring to do it ! 

Accordingly they sought by artifice and impos- 
ture to elevate the papal over the civil power. 
Gregory II., in 730, told the emperor Leo Isaurus, 
that " all the kingdoms of the west did hold St. 
Peter as a God upon the earth." Epist. i. — See 
also Binii, tom. v. p. 508. Barrow, p. 26. 

Adrian 1. in a bull of 772, put forth this claim ; 
" We, by a general decree, constitute, that whatever 
king or bishop, or potentate, shall hereafter believe, 
or permit, that the censure of the pope's may be vio- 
lated, in any case, he shall be an execrable anathe- 
ma, and shall be guilty before God, as a betrayer 
of the Catholic faith." Hadrian I. Capit. apud 
Grat. Caus. 25. Qucest. 1. cap. 11. And Distinct. 
10. cap. 4. 

Pope Stephen VI. declared to the emperor, Ba- 
silius, that " he ought to be subject to the Roman 
church, with all veneration." Baron, Annal. 885. 
Sect. 11. 

Pope Gregory VII., from 1073, laboured to ex- 
tend the pope's temporal power, "He raised his 
voice like a trumpet, and kindled wars and sedi- 
tions over all Europe." His family name was 
Hildebrand ; hence he is commonly known by the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 153 

appropriate name of Pope Hellbrand ! He 
was the most audacious and successful of all the 
papal fanatics, in raising his sacerdotal lance against 
kings and magistrates. He degraded the King of 
Poland, and the Greek emperor. He deposed the 
emperor Henry of Germany. Every sovereign 
of Europe he claimed as a vassal, in abject submis- 
sion to obey him in all temporalities. " It is right 
that he (Henry) be deprived of dignity,*' said he, 
*' who labours to diminish the majesty of the church /" 
"The pope," said he, *' ought to be called universal 
bishop : he alone ought to wear the tokens of im- 
perial dignity : all princes ought to kiss his feet : 
he has power to depose kings and emperors ; and 
is to be judged of no man." And such was the 
ambition of this pope, to raise the papacy to an 
elevation of power, higher than the Greek emper- 
ors, and all the proudest names of the west, that 
he even spoke contemptuously of civil power, 
when compared to his ghostly authority ! " Your 
dignity," said he to civil rulers, "is invented by 
secular men, ignorant of God:" "the devil, the 
prince of this world, moves you!" Civil rulers 
"are the body and members of the devil." " The 
members of the devil have risen up, and laid their 
hands upon me," said he. Labbei, Tom. xii. 499, 
501 ; Edgar's Variations of Popery, p. 214. 

This pope did not only absolve Henry's subjects 
from their allegiance, but also transferred the gov- 
ernment of Germany to Rodolph, whom he ap- 
pointed emperor. This he did in defiance equally 
of the rights of the people, and their magistrates. 

Pope Urban H. decreed in Caus. 15. Qucest. 7. 
cap, 5. that "subjects are by no authority con- 



154 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Strained to pay the fidelity which they have sworn 
to a Christian prince, who opposeth God and his 
saints," &c. 

Pope Innocent III. decreed "that the pope's 
power exceeds the royal power just as much as 
the sun does the moon !" And his Holiness quotes 
for infallible proof of this, Jerem. i. 10. — "See, I 
have set thee over the nations, and over the king- 
doms, to root out, and pull down, and destroy." See 
P. Innoc. iii. In Decret. Greg. Lib. i. Titul. 33. 
cap. 6. In another place the same pope says, — 
" The church, my spouse, is not married unto me 
without bringing me something. She hath given 
me the dowry of a price, beyond all price, — the 
plenitude of spiritual power ; and the extent of tem- 
poral power ; the mitre for the priesthood ; and 
the crown for the kingdom; making me the vic- 
ar of HIM, vrho has written on his vesture and 
thigh, — 'King of kings, and Lord of lords:' to 
enjoy alone the plenitude of power, that others 
may say of me, next to God, ' out of his fulness 
have we received /' " 

Boniface VIIL, in 1294, solemnly decreed that 
" it is of necessity to salvation for every human 
being to be subject to the pope." See Extrav. 
Com. Lib. i. Titul. 8, cap. 1. He adds, " One 
sword must be under another ; and the temporal 
authority m ust be under the spiritual power ; whence 
if the earthly power go astray, it must be judged 
by the spiritual power." 

Pope Adrian IV. claimed dominion over all 
nations. By virtue of this power he wantonly 
transferred Ireland to Henry II., King of England, 
on two conditions : 1st. He was — to use his own 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 155 

words — to convert these bestial men, the native 
Irish, over to the faith, (meaning popery,) and 
the way of truth." "Homines illos bestiales ad 
fidem, et viam reducer e veritatis." Math. Paris, 
p. 91. Henry, in obedience to the pope's decree, 
invaded Ireland ; bound her in papal chains ; and 
threw her at the feet of England; where, from 
1172, even to this day, she has been bleeding and 
groaning in her misery.* 

The second condition was, that Henry should 
be his tax-gatherer, as well as his executioner, in 
Ireland. He accordingly acted as the Roman 
jpuhlican ; and collected for the pope that hated 
tax, called Peter's Pence. This amounted to a 
penny for each hearth in the kingdom : hence the 
intelligent Irish always called it " the pope's smoke 
money. ^^ 

Innocent III. played off his despotic claims on 
John, king of England. In 1208, he laid the na- 
tion under an interdict. This, in the age of dark- 
ness and superstition, produced an awful spectacle. 
Then followed the thunder of the Vatican ; he was 
excommunicated with the usual papal puerility and 
buffoonery. His subjects were loosed from their 
allegiance : the pope even commanded the nation 
to rise in arms against him ! The king of France 
was enjoined by the pope to invade England; and 
take possession of the kingdom delivered to him. 
And he was actually approaching it, with a hun- 
dred sail, and a numerous army, when King John 

* We beg to refer to our Tract, entitled, " The religion of the 
ancient Bntons and Irish no popery; and the immortal St. 
Patrick vindicated from the false charge of having been a 
Roman Catholic." Second edition. 



156 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

sunk under the universal cowardice, — or rather 
— popery of his subjects. He made his peace with 
Rome, laying his crown at the pope's feet, and 
swearing allegiance to him in these words : — ** I, 
John, king of England, will be a faithful vassal to 
the Church of Rome, and to my lord. Pope Inno- 
cent III." 

Pope Paul III. sought to wield the same power 
against Henry VIII. ; and Pope Pius V., against 
Queen Elizabeth. But the dauntless courage of 
these sovereigns, and especially the light and glo- 
rious spirit of liberty, springing up at " the ever 
blessed Reformation," paralyzed the papal arm! 
The pope's thunderbolts glanced harmlessly from 
the shield of the church of Christ : and fell scath- 
less at the feet of the British lion ! 

They managed these things still better in Scot- 
land. — The pope's crown, which he had stolen out 
of the palace of the pagan emperors. King Henry 
VIIL lifted off the pope's head, and put it with 
nearly all its appurtenances, on his own head ! 
But the Scottish Reformers, calling this only half 
measures in reformation, dashed off the pope's 
triple crown, and hurled it, with its cross and jew- 
elry, and the mitre and crosier, with the motley 
robes, and altars, and images of the Man of Sin, 
into one common roaring bonfire ! And they set 
up their simple and pure form of worship through- 
out the land. They put no crown of supremacy 
on any prince's head : they knew no king in Zion 
but the Lord Jesus Christ ! 

Our readers will forgive us for offering a few 
more illustrations of this unparalleled civil des- 
potism of popery. It cannot be set in too clear a 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 157 

liofht : it cannot be urcfecl with too much vehemence 
on the public attention. For history utters its warn- 
ing voice to us, as a nation, in pointing out these in- 
stances of national oppression ; while it teaches us 
the impressive lesson, that, in no one instance, has 
the pope, or council, or "the church," ever uttered 
its disar)probation of any of these examples of 
worse than Turkish despotism ! Far less has a 
disavowal, or a condemnation gone forth against 
them ; nor has a single apology, or reparation, ever 
been imde for them, to outraged Europe. On the 
contrary, these principles, and practices, stand ap- 
proved by the highest, and holiest authority, ever 
claimed in Rome ! Hence the value of these his- 
torical illustrations, and their warning voice. Po- 
pery is the same this day, that it ever was, both in 
principle, and in practice. Let this religion only 
have the ascendency in point of numbers, in our 
land, and as certainly as the same cause produces 
the same effect, — she will speedily show you this 
in demonstrations of war and havoc, fire and blood! 
Then wo shall be to our republic, and to every 
Christian and patriot in the land ! 
U 



158 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER V, 

THE ROMAN PONTIFF CXAIMS AND EXERCISES 
CIVIL, AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL POWER. 

Proof of this eontinued — Further instances of "popes rigor- 
ously exercising temporal power — Specimens of another 
form of operating in this matter — Orators— flatterers — 
Martyrs for the pope's civil powei — Some sairied for de- 
fending and dying for^ it — Proof from, recent facts^ and 
present dogmas^ that this claiufi of temporal power is yet 
held by Rome. 



Papa noster Deus in terns !" 
The pope is our God on earth !" 

aldiis. Lib. %lt. De Sent. Resc. 



We alluded to the claims set up by Paul II I. ^ 
against Henry VIIL They deserve a fuller no- 
tice by us. The bull was entitled, *' The damna- 
tion and excommunication of King Henry VIII." 
He sets forth claims, " by divine right, to the su- 
preme dominion over the kings of the whole world, 
and over all people." He then deposes the king ; 
absolves all the Eno-lish from their oath of alleo-i- 
ance to him ; and declares " all leagues and obliga- 
tions of Christian powers, contracted with Henry, 
to be null and invalid." Hoav clearly does he here- 
set forth this radical doctrine of popery, — namely, 
that " no faith is to be kept with heretics /" He 
next issues his papal orders "to all the servants of 
Henry, to all the soldiers, and sailors, to turn their 
arms against the king, and his adherents, to perse- 
cute them, and force, and compel them to return to 
the unity of the faith.''^ 

Pius V. also issued his edict, — entitled, — "Bull 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 159 

of damnation and excommunication of Glueen Eliz- 
abeth." In this, he says: — *' Hunc unum, &c. — 
Him alone, (the pope,) God has made prince over 
all people, and all kingdoms, to pluck up and de- 
stroys to plant, and build, &c." From " this supreme 
throne of justice, — hoc supremo throno justitice,^^ 
he hurls the thunderbolt of anathema at the Glueen 
of England : and " commands the nobles, magis- 
trates, and people, not to presume to obey her." 
Sect. 4. And to complete the ebullition of the pa- 
pal despotism, he ordered his vassal, Philip II., 
king of Spain, to arm, and invade England. But 
the God of Zion delivered England, and the Pro- 
testant religion, by a signal interposition of his di- 
vine providence. That prince's Invincible Armada 
was scattered on the ocean, and destroyed. " The 
Almighty blew upon them, and they sunk like lead 
in the great waters." 

Pope Julius III., exhibited his claims to civil 
power in 1550, by the new coin which he issued. 
This was its motto : — " Gens et regnum quod mihi 
nos paruerit, peribit. — The nation and kingdom 
that will not serve me shall perish /" Wolfii. Lect. 
Memor. Tom. ii. 640—644. 

Pope Sixtus v., in 1585, ushered in his bull 
against Henry, King of Navarre, and the Prince of 
Conde, whom he styled the two sorts of wrath, in 
these words : — " The authority given to St. Peter 
and HIS SUCCESSORS, by the immense power of the 
Eternal King, excels all the power of earthly 
kings and princes." " We, by virtue of this power, 
deprive these princes, and their posterity for ever, 
of their dominions, and kingdoms." Bulla Sixti 
V, Contra Henr. Nav. R. &c. Barrow, p. 18. 



160 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Pope Alexander VI., in the plenitude of this 
power, did actually exercise the right of disposing 
of America between the kings of Spain and Por- 
tugal. This he did, as it was discovered, and in- 
deed before it was fully discovered. We have the 
document in Bullarium Magnum, Tom. i. p. 454. 

**Nos motu proprio, de nostra liberalitate, &c.— 

We, by our own motion, out of our own liberality, 
do, by the authority of Almighty God, and the vi- 
carship of Jesus Christ, which we do discharge 
upon earth, by these presents, gift, and make, and 
depute you the lords and heirs of all islands, and 
continents, found, or about to be found ; discovered, 
or about to be discovered ; towards the west and 
south, &c." 

He then proceeds to lay down his geographical 
lines of division. And here I cannot omit a curi- 
ous anecdote. The infallible vicar of heaven, 
whatever may have been his assurance as to his 
right and title from above, did certainly labour un- 
der a woful geographical blunder, as to the posi- 
tion of his new domains, and the shape of the 
earth. 

He had parcelled out to one favourite, the lands 
and islands, *' versus Indiam, towards India and the 
east :" to the other, he gave all of them *' versus 
occidentum, &c. — towards the west and south." 
Well, it is certain that this vicar of the Lord had 
no conception of the world being a globe ! Hence 
a serious difficulty occurred. The ships of the re- 
spective nations set sail, one towards the east, the 
other south and west, to take possession of all that 
they could find. To their mutual astonishment 
they met! And each stoutly claimed the lands 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 161 

where they met. They are ours, cried the one, for 
according to his Holiness' decree, we came to them 
after sailing due east. They are ours, cried the 
other party, for that very reason ; we reached them 
after sailing according to his Holiness, due south 
and west ! And they actually came to blows about 
the possession. 

Paul v., so late as the early part of the 17th 
century, arrogated the power of annulling civil 
laws and edicts. In his quarrel v/ith the duke, and 
the republic of Venice, for their presuming to pun- 
ish certain priests convicted of great crimes, he is- 
sued his bull in these words : — " We decree, and 
declare those decrees, edicts, and commands," (of the 
duke and republic of Venice,) " to be null, invalid, 
void, and of no force, or moment : and that none 
are bound to the observance of them." 

And this power of abrogating civil law, and re- 
sisting secular governments, he proclaims to the 
world as the doctrine and usage of the church of 
Rome ; sanctioned by general councils ; and by his 
predecessors in the holy chair ; ten of whom he 
specifies. 

It deserves notice, that the zeal of popes for this 
power, has raised its shameless and unblushing ad- 
vocates to the highest honours in their gift. To 
plead for the pope's unlimited power in temporals, 
over all secular rulers, and to suffer for this, has 
been the certain pathway to riches and glory. This 
raised Reginald Pole, Turrecremata, Pighius, Bel- 
larmine, to the Cardinal's red hat ! 

This raised Thomas Aquinas, St. Anthony, St. 
Bonaventure, to the ghostly peerage of saintship ! 

What gave such consideration to the noted St. 
14* 



162 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Anselm of England, that he was also made a 
ghostly peer 1- Nothing but his too successful op- 
position to his sovereign ; nothing but his impudent 
treason against his country's independence; nothing 
but his obstinately maintaining the pope's superi- 
ority over secular powers, and the government of 
his own prince in particular, in all temporals. — 
See Hume's England, vol. i. ch. 6. 

What elevated the vile hypocrite, St. Thomas d 
Becket, to the saintship, and to such profound ado- 
ration, that he was, in reality, the chief Roman god 
in England, until Henry VHI. broke up the scan- 
dalous idolatry, confiscated his temple's treasures, 
burned his bones, and scattered them in the air ? 

Two causes contributed effectually to this: 1st. 
The too successful war which he carried on with 
sacerdotal fury, and indecency, against his lawful 
sovereign, Henry H., for the avowed purpose of es- 
tablishing the superiority of the pope, and his 
priesthood, over the civil power of England. 

And, 2d. Having set the spiritual power above 
the civil, he thereby screened the profligate and mur- 
derous priests from the visitations of civil justice. 
See Hume's Engl vol. i. ch. 8. 

Nay, the zeal of securing the stability of this 
power of the popes, has actually raised to these 
highest honours, — a place in the calendar of the 
saints, even atrocious assassins ! For instance, 
what exalted to perpetual honours, the bloody mur- 
derers of the Henrys of France, and of the Prince 
of Orange ?• What raised a certain odious conspir- 
ator against his country, and his government, to 
divine honours? By what marvellous transforma- 
^on of popish tactics is a certain detestjable conspir- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 163 

ator, and assassin, converted into a saint ? It is a 
notorious fact, not generally known, that Gar net ^ 
the chief of the Jesuits, justly executed in England 
for his crimes, and high treason, by the hands of 
the common hangman, is now St. Henry, at Rome, 
and in Spain. Garnet, the personification of crime, 
and high treason, is worshipped as St. Henry, in 
popish lands ! O St. Henry, hy thy intercession, 
and pure merits, procure for us the pardon of sin ! 
And why 1 Because he was the leader of the no- 
torious band of conspirators, who avowed, that the 
pope's power was superior to the civil power of 
England ; and attempted to destroy, at one blow, 
his Holiness' enemies by the gunpowder plot! 
Hume, vol. iii. ch. 46. 

This power which the pope claims, of deposing 
civil rulers, on account of their dissent from the 
Romish religion, was admitted by that great 
fountain of popish authority, the professors, doctors, 
and bishops connected with the Roman Catholic 
college of Maynooth. They admitted the histori- 
cal instances that have been produced. But, then, 
they are Jesuits. On their examination, they had 
recourse to their "distingue:" their distinctions. 
This, say they, in the face of all historical evidence, 
was 7iot an article of faith with the popes, but only 
an opinion ! Yes ! even with pope Boniface ViH., 
before their eyes, issuing his decree, saying, — "We 
declare, define, say, and pronounce it to be of ne- 
cessity to salvation, for every human being to be 
subject to the pope!" Yes, with all his bishops 
before their eyes, formally receiving this ; and none 
demurring, — still it was only an opinion — not an 
article of faith ! No ! not a7i article of faith, — 



164 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

even though the pope pronounced the said condition 
to be essential to man's salvation ! 

So all this mischief of annulling civil laws, and 
deposing princes, and interdicting nations, was done 
— it is true : — but then it was done, say the Jesuits, 
not jure divino : but hy jure huma7io, — by human, 
— ^not by divine, but by human right : it was done 
only by an opinion, — not upon the principle oj an 
article of faith! 

In the midst of this shuffling, the royal com- 
missioners put the question to Dr. Slevin, — " Can 
you produce any papal bull, rescript, or decree, is- 
sued by the pope, declaring that the Roman pontiff 
does not possess, or has no title to exercise teriiporal 
power?" He replied, — " I believe no bull has ever 
been issued, disclaiming such a right, or declaring 
that the pope did 7wt possess temporal power." See 
8 Rep. Irish Educ. p. 200. 

This is an important admission, taken into con- 
nexion with the fact lately made know^n in London, 
and which is producing the most salutary agitation 
in the British public, namely, that Den's Theolo- 
gy, in which is taught the uncompromising pope- 
ry of the Dark Ages, on this point, is actually the 
text book of theology in that Roman Catholic col- 
lege ; and is patronised by the priesthood of the 
Irish church as a body ! It can therefore no longer 
be denied, or even doubted, that poperjr does as 
much as ever, place the spiritual power above the 
temporal ; the priesthood, above the magistrate ; 
the papal will and authority, above all princes, 
presidents, and civil government. The man that 
can gravely deny this, will deny even the existence 
of the Irish massacre of the Protestants of 1641 : 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 165 

and will maintain with Bishop Cheverus that Holy- 
Mother never persecuted ; and that all the accounts 
of the bloodshed of millions, are but vile fictions 
fabricated by Protestants ! And such men you 
never can reach by reason, or demonstrations! 
They are party men, placed beyond the pale of 
human conviction ! 

In conclusion, the power of dispensing with oaths 
is based on the pope's temporal power over rulers 
and their subjects. In the text book of Moral Phi- 
losophy, used in Maynooth, p. 119, it is taught 
that "there are seven causes excusing the obliga- 
tion of an oath; midifive causes taking away all 
obligation thereof" And in p. 150, 283, this dog- 
ma is laid down : — " Existit in ecclesia, &c. There 
exists in the church" (of Rome) " the power of dis- 
pensing m oaths." In their examination, the pro- 
fessors explained this to mean merely " a d.eclara- 
tive power." But on further examination it was 
shown, out of the text book, that it " is a foioer of 
absolving from oaths.'''' This Dr. Anglade ad- 
mitted on his solemn oath. See 8th Rep. &c. p. 
171, 172. 

But he attempted by a mere shuffle, to prove 
that "this power of absolving from oaths" was ad- 
mitted and exercised only in " ^joiri^z^^^-/ wmUctsP 
The question was then put to him by the royal 
examiners,—" Can you show one word in the 
Class Book, confining the proposition to spiritual 
things ?" He explained, and evaded. " Admitting 
this to be your o\vti explanation, the question is 
again put to you, — ' Can you find one word in 
the Class Book that does confine this power of dis- 



166 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

pensing in oaths, simply to spirituals P " He could 
produce none! See 8 Rep. p. 173. 

The same question was put to Dr. McHale, an- 
other professor of Maynooth, who, after some Jesu- 
itical evasions, in the use of his "distinguoI" 
added this singular observation : — "A decree 
setting bounds to this power, and confining it to 
spirituals, is not necessary. The church herself 
will always point out the limits J^ See 8 Rep. p. 
285. Yes, verily! Holy Mother will point out 
the limits ! Her benefit will decide when it is to 
be extended to temporals, in absolving all subjects 
from allegiance to their princes ; and all citizens 
from their government and laws ! Her benefit 
will determine when " the spiritual subjects''^ of the 
pope are to be absolved from all bonds, leagues, 
and treaties with Protestant heretics ! This re- 
mark of Dr. McHale has put Protestants into the 
possession of an extraordinary secret of Jesuitism. 

The following quotation from the bull of Pope 
Sixtus v., in 1585, will exhibit a specimen of pa- 
pal absolution from an oath. He is issuing the 
thunder of the Vatican against the King of Na- 
varre, and the Prince of Conde, and absolving their 
subjects from their oaths of fealty. " By the au- 
thority of these presents, do we absolve and set 
free all persons, jointly and severally, from any 
such oath; and from all duty whatsoever, in re- 
gard of dominion, fealty, and obedience ; and we 
do charge and forbid all, and every one of them, 
that they do not dare to obey them ; or any of their 
admonitions, laws, and commands !" Bulla Sixti 
V. Contra Henr. Nav. R., Barrow's Pope's Supre- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 167 

macy, 19. Will Dr. McHale say that this was 
absolution from oaths in things spiritual 1 

This is not all: there is another dogma laid 
do^vn in the same Text Book of Maynooth, which 
must satisfy every patriot that no court of justice, 
that no civil government, can trust a papist's oath. 
Here is the extract ; — " Et fit sub ilia, &c. And 
an oath is always taken under that silent and un- 
derstood condition, from the nature of the law 
itself, that it is dependent on the act of the 'person 
who has the right of contradicting itJ^ See 8th 
Rep. p. 165. 

Now the pope is every papist's master and lord; 
he has the absolute power and right to contradict 
his subjects' oath in any court of justice; or to any 
government. The pope has only to say the word, 
and his subject may take any oath for Holy Moth- 
er's good ! Again, he has only to utter his will, 
and any oath to a civil powder, — and any oath in a 
civil court, is set aside, and he is absolved from all 
sin ; whether it be that of deception, prevarication, 
or even wilful perjury ! 

We shall close this branch of our argument, by 
an anecdote or two, illustrative thereof, and a no- 
tice of the recent case of the present pope, and Don 
Pedro of Portuofal. 

It is narrated of Philip HI, King of Spain, that 
he was, on one occasion, so much overcome by the 
piteous cries of the condemned innocents at an 
Auto da fe, that he was heard to say, " How hard 
is it for men to die for their opinions and belief!" 

One of the spies of the Inquisition reported his 
majesty's exclamation to the Inquisitor General. 
Acting on the principle that the supreme head of 



168 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

the government was the j^ope's vassal, the Inquisi- 
tor sent a message to the king to inform him "that 
the Holy Office expected satisfactioti of him for 
the crime of giving utterance to that sentiment!" 

And this officer of the pope would not be appeas- 
ed until the king consented to have blood taken 
from his arm. And this blood the executioner 
threw into the fire to be burned before the whole 
assemblage of Madrid ! Thus atonement was made 
by having some of the royal blood burned by the 
Inquisition ! 

While Cromwel administered the government 
of England, as Protector, the Inquisition of Portu- 
gal seized the English consul, and threw him into 
its dungeons. Cromwel lost no time in despatch- 
ing an embassy to the king, demanding the libera- 
tion of his trusty servant. The king received him 
courteously, but declared that he was constrained 
to say, that he had no control over the Inquisition ! 
On hearing this, Cromwel despatched an armed 
vessel to Lisbon ; and ordered a proclamation to 
be made in front of the Inquisition, that if the Brit- 
ish consul was not delivered within ^i^-6> hours, war 
should be proclaimed against the Inquisition by 
the English, and an army landed, to batter down 
its walls ! Instantly the Inquisitor General order- 
ed him to be set at liberty. 

It will be proper to adduce here, a recent in- 
stance or two, in order to satisfy every reader, that 
these dogmas, and this papal arrogance have, by 
no means, sunk into desuetude. The pope's two 
swords may be sheathed; but it is only until he 
shall regain the power to draw them, for a war of 
extermination ! It is well known to all that Pope 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 169 

Pius VII. actually launched the thunderbolt of 
the church at the head of no less a man than 
Napoleon of France. This took place in 1809. 
He sets out with stating that he, " unworthy though 
he is, does represent upon earth, the Almighty God 
of peace." He complains of the terrific evil arising 
from Napoleon's sway, that " the spiritual power 
was subjected to the will of the laic.''^ He laments 
over the emperor's impiety in compelling him to 
give up his temporal power. " Much less," says 
he, " could we suppose it lawful for us to deliver 
up so ancient, and so sacred a heritage, namely, the 
temporal sovereignty of this Holy See, not without 
the evident appointment of God, possessed by the 
Roman pontiffs, our predecessors, for so many 
ages." Thus he claims all that the preceding popes 
ever claimed ! 

He adds ; " Let them once again understand that 
by the law of Christ, their sovereignty (the French 
empire) is subject to our throne ; for we also ex- 
ercise a sovereignty; we add, also, a more noble 
5o?;6rei^'/i^y, unless it were just that the spirit should 
yield to the flesh; and celestial things to terres- 
trial." This curious document may be seen in 
M'Gavin's Glasg. Prot. Amer. Edit. ch. 106, 107. 
vol. ii. 

The present Pope, Gregory XVL, in 1833, is- 
sued his bull against Don Pedro of Portugal. 
Having denounced him for " driving away from 
his court, the pope's nuncio : having wept over the 
audacity of the civil authority, who dared confis- 
cate the priests' property," (who were in rebellion 
against the government,) and over " laymen who 
rashly arrogated power over the church ; and who 
15 



170 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

proclaimed a general reform of clergy, monks, and 
nuns :" he utters the thunder of the Vatican, as in 
olden times. " We do explicitly declare, that we 
do absolutely reprobate all the decrees of the gov- 
ernment of Lisbon, made to the detriment of the 
church, and her priests : and we declare them null, 
and of no effect." Here before all Europe, the 
papal claims of the Dark Ages, are set up in our 
day. 

I am perfectly aware of the objection that has 
been actually made by the Jesuits, and repeated by 
some Protestants. It is this : — Every papist here, 
declares upon his oath that the pope has no civil 
2J0wer, or authority in the United States ! I beg to 
give the same reply to this, which the celebrated 
M' Gavin has given to the same objection, in the 
Glasgow Protestant. " It will be replied," said 
he, "that our British papists declare upon oath that 
the pope of Rome has no civil power, or authority 
in Britain or Ireland. But this declaration of pa- 
pists, ' even on oath^ is of no value, seeing the 

POPE HIMSELF HAS NOT MADE IT !" 

12* 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 171 



CHAPTER VL 

THE POPE CLAIMS TEMPORAL AS WELL AS SPI- 
RITUAL POWER. 



Proof of this continued: — Fourth: — From the decrees of 
General Councils — Eight of these Councils have invested 
the pope with this unllraited power over civil rulers — RuceU 
lai on the Bull In coena Domini. 



" The canons of General Councils I indubitably receive and profess." 

Pope Pius' Creed. 



Fourth. We shall adduce the testimony of gen- 
eral councils on this point. The pope's bull, when 
once received by his bishops, and consented to, es- 
tablishes the matter of that bull into a genuine ar- 
ticle of faith ; and is, thenceforth, as binding upon 
every papist, as any text of God's Holy Scriptures. 

Another class, however, demand evidence some- 
what different from this. " It requires," say they, 
"the pope, and a council, to enact articles of faith. 
If the dogma comes from a council and a pope, 
then it has on its face the stamp of divinity." This 
evidence I am now to produce on the subject be- 
fore us. 

Eight General Councils have issued decrees; 
in which they invest the pope with supreme tem- 
poral power. And the canons of these councils, 
each bishop and priest are sworn, by a solemn oath, 
*' to receive ; and to cause them to be held, taught, 
and preached by others." A copy of this oath I 
shall subjoin presently. 

I mention this to put my reader on his guard 
against the usual Jesuitism of the papists, who cease 



172 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

not to deny the binding obligation of these decrees 
of councils. 

1st. The fourth council of the Lateran, canon 3, 
decreed the degradation of refractory princes. The 
civil ruler who refuses allegiance to the pope, or 
incurs his displeasure, is, first, to be excommuni- 
cated by his metropolitan : a year is allowed him to 
repent ; if he still persists in rebellion against the pope, 
then " this vicegerent of God," is empowered to de- 
grade the obstinate monarch ; to absolve his subjects 
from all obedience to him, and the laws of the land ; 
to transfer his civil power to anyone, who shall in- 
vade the land ; and give it to be occupied by Ca- 
tholics, faithful to the pope. " Vassalos ab ejus fide- 
litate, denunciet absolutoSy et terram exponat Catho- 
licis occupandam." See Binii Co7icilia, Tom. 8. 
807. Dupin, 571. Edgar, 226. 

2. The council of Lyons enacted the sentence of 
deposition against the emperor Frederick II. Ac- 
cordingly he was cursed by three different popes. 
Gregory IX. cursed him with every possible so- 
lemnity. Mathew Paris, 542, adds, — " Dominus 
papa satansB dederit in perditionem," — " the Lord 
pope consigned him over to the devil, for utter per- 
dition." 

It is true, this sovereign was a man of spirit. 
A.nd had he been nobly sustained, the priest of 
Rome might have been kept in his place to rule his 
own eunuchs and shavelings ! He hurled his po- 
litical anathema at Gregory, and comxplimented him 
with the graceful titles of, — " A Balaam, an Anti- 
christ ; the Prince of Darkness ; the Great Dragon 
that deceives the nations." Bruys, Histoire Des 
Papes, iii. 192. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 173 

The Council of Lyons, in 1245, was convened 
by Pope Innocent IV., to enact the curse once more 
on the emperor, who had baffled Gregory IX. 
" The sentence of deposition was pronounced by the 
council, in full assembly." And it was got up in 
as imposing a manner as these masters of super- 
stition could devise. The pope, and each bishop, 
and priest, held a lighted match in his hand. The 
emperor was cursed with " hell, book, and candleP 
At an appropriate part of the ceremony, the whole 
assembly of monks and shavelings, with one instan- 
taneous puff, blew out their candles f And, behold, 
the imperial majesty of the Romans, with his civil 
government, is hloion out I See Mathew Paris, 65 1 ; 
Labbeus, Concilia, Tom. xiv. 51. 

This council, by another decree, exhibited the 
practical result of their dogma, that all govern- 
ments are under the power of the pope, and the 
church. Instead of leaving each government to 
pass its own laws, and execute them, — it decreed, — 
" that any prince, prelate, or other person, civil, or 
ecclesiastical, who becomes principal, or accessory 
to the assassination of a Christian, or who receives, 
defends, or conceals the assassin, incurs the sen- 
tence of anathema, and deposition from all honour 
and office." See Pithou Corpus Jur. Canon, 334. 
On this I observe, 1st. That the pope and coun- 
cil here inflict civil pains, namely, deposition of the 
magistracy. 2d. It is assumed, here, as an article 
of faith, enacted by this council, that the pope and 
council have a right to interfere with the internal 
regulations, and laws of civil government. 3d. 
By this decree, the pope, the fountain of deposing 
power, is invested with civil power, — that is, with 
15* 



174 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

power to inflict civil pains, upon civil rulers. And 
this c£inon has never been revoked. 

3d. The Council of Vienna, in 1311, decreed 
that : — " The emperor is bound to the pope, from 
whom he receives consecration, unction, and coro- 
nation, by an oath of fealty P And Pope Clement, 
the presiding " god," thus expounded the mind of 
the holy council, — " The king of kings has given 
such a power to his church, that the kingdom be- 
longs to her; that she can elevate the grandest 
princes; and that emperors, and kings, ought to 
obey her." See Bruys, Histoire Des Popes, iii. 
373. Edgar, p. 2"28. 

4th. The Council of Constance in its 17th ses- 
sion, decreed the " anathema, and deposition, on all 
persons, be they kings, princes, priests, or prelates, 
who should throw any obstacle or hinderance in the 
way of the Emperor Sigismond, in his journey to 
Arragon, to confer with King Ferdinand, for the 
extinction of schism in the church." Here is an 
instance of a council, with a pope at its head, offer- 
ing an insult, in the most public manner, to a sov- 
ereign nation, and government. Without consult- 
ing France, or her king, this council of priests en- 
acts a decree, giving a right, and authority to an- 
other sovereign, with his armed men, to pass 
through the country, without leave asked or given ! 
Maimburgh, 247. Edgar, p. 229. 

This council, in its 20th session, also took cogni- 
zance of the Duke of Austria. He had, in war, 
stripped the bishop of Trent of some of his large 
dominions. And they enacted asfainst him a de- 
cree of deposition from office and honours, if he 
did not restore what he had acquired ! This sen- 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 175 

tence extended even to his heirs, and his accom- 
plices. So completely had the enacting power in 
Rome, which forms new articles of faith, placed 
the ghostly power above all civil authority ! 

5th. The Council of Pisa having deposed two 
popes, issued the spiritual ban of deposition on all 
emperors, kings, princes, and magistrates, who 
should presume to aid, counsel, or favour the de- 
posed popes! Labbeus, xv. p. 1219. 

6th. The Council of Basil, in its 40th session, is- 
sued a similar decree against, "any emperor, king, 
ruler, or officer, who should refuse to obey the new- 
made pope." Here we have an instance of the 
Court of Rome exercising power over all officers 
in the state, civil and military. 

7th. In the Council of the Lateran, held in 1512, 
Cardinal Cajetan, thus uttered the sentiments of the 
fathers : — '* The pope has two swords ; the one is 
common to his supremacy, and other earthly 
princes ; the other is peculiar to himself, as pope. 
And this is precisely what is taught in the canon 
law." SeeExtravag. Comm. I. 8. 1. "In hac po- 
testate, &c. — We are instructed in the gospel, that 
in the pope's power there are two swords ; to wit, 
the spiritual and the temporal. Each of these, 
then, is in the power of the church." Edgar's 
Variations, p. 225. 

Lastly: The Council of Trent, the last held by 
Romanists, has in like manner, interfered with the 
internal regulations, and laws of civil governments. 
In the 25th session it decreed, that *' if an^^ empe- 
ror, king, or other civil prince, should peimit a 
duel in his dominions, he should be excomnruni- 
cated, and solemnly deprived of his city, castle, or 



176 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

place where the duel had been fought." See Thu- 
anus, Hist. v. 241. Dupin, Hist. iii. 645. 

In its 24th session, it put all civil princes under 
its highest ban, who should compel, by law, their 
vassals, or an 3'' other person, to marry. 

These are the canons of the General Councils. 
And that they are not in any sense, abrogated, is 
quite manifest from the oath imposed by the bull of 
Pope Pius IV., on every beneficed clergyman in 
the Romish church. The following is the oath, as 
it is recorded by Labbeus, in his Concilia, Tom. xx. 
222: the English reader can see it in Edgar's Va- 
riations, p. 230. — " Omnia a sacris, &c. — I receive 
and profess all things delivered, defined, and de- 
clared by the holy canons, and general councils ; 
and I shall endeavour, to the utmost of my power, 
to cause the same to be held, taught, and preached. 
This I promise, vow, and swear : so help me God, 
and the holy gospels." 

In addition to the evidence of this oath, we have 
the testimony of some of the most eminent civilians 
and statesmen, in Roman Catholic lands. I shall 
select only one, at present. I mean the illustrious 
and patriotic Rucellai, secretary to the Grand Duke 
of Tuscany. 

The following is his exposition of the notorious 
bull hi coena Domini, presented to the Grand Duke 
in a very spirited appeal to him, and his country, 
against that bull. And I quote it for a double 
purpose: 1st. This distinguished Roman Catholic 
statesman here gives the Zie to bishop England, and 
the other Jesuits, who have the assurance to deny 
the bull In coena Domini is annually published 
against us. 2. He sets in the clearest possible light 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 177 

the pope's claims of temporal power, and his right 
to interfere with the internal regulations of civil 
governments. 

" The priests," says Rucellai, " ought to be pun- 
ished as transgressors of national laws. Their obe- 
dience to this bull In coena, should cease to operate 
as an excuse for them. That bull is published 
everywhere ; its principles are taught in the schools. 
It is inculcated on the penitents by their confessors ; 
it is demonstratively unjust : it is subversive of all 
the rights of sovereignty, of law, of good order, 
and of public tranquillity !" Nay, exclaims that 
statesman, in allusion to the priestly oaths ; " That 
oath is, in fact, a solemn promise, not only to be un- 
faithful to one's lawful government; but even to 
betray it, as often as the Court of Rome's interest 
may render it necessary !" See Memoirs of Scipio 
de Ricci. ch. 3. 

Such are the principles of the men who are 
pouring in their legions of Jesuit priests on our 
shores ! These are the politics of the men, who 
are rearing seminaries, and offering to teach Pro- 
testant children the true religion ; and American 
republicans, sound ^politics ! ! 



178 rOFERY, THE EMiMY Ol 

CHAPTER VII. 
ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS A PRIVILEGED ORDER. 

Rome the scat of their sovereign — Priests the pope's officers 
in his standing army — Admirably fitted for their work of 
invading us — Celibacy — Sworn vassals to the pope — not al- 
lowed to be in allegiance to civil powers — Exempt from 
taxes in popish countries. 



" Thivs Beelzebub 

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 
By Satan, and in part proposed ; tor whence 
But from the author of all ill, could sprint; 
iSo deep a malice." Milton. 

Rome, in the style of the Romanists, is " the cap- 
ital of the Christian world." This is a favourite 
expression, and full of meaning. The Christian 
world is their kingdom, and each kingdom, and re- 
public, is a province. Thus, the United States con- 
stitutes "one province." The pope is supreme 
head; from him all laws and orders emanate. 
From him there is no appeal ; he is a despotic sov- 
ereign. He creates bishops, and cardinals ; every 
order of the priesthood is formed by the breath of 
his lips. He appoints each to his diocess, or chapel ; 
and displaces, w^hom he pleases, by his mandate. 

Now, it is evident from what we have already 
exhibited, that popery is a great human and 
POLITICAL system; having for its object, power, 
riches, dominion, pleasures. It operates, as it al- 
w^ays has operated, on the nations, under the mask 
of the Christian religion! But, the system of 
Christianity has long ago disappeared from it. It 
is vox ct prcctcrca nihil I It employs the name, 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 179 

and the semblance, as a covert ; and so far as it sub- 
serves its purposes, it employs the image of it, in 
striking terror into the consciences of ignorant 
men. Christianity is a sublime, pure, and holy 
system. It is the perfection of beauty in theory, 
and in practice. It is the palace of the Holy One, 
where God dwells, where angels and the redeemed 
walk in the ineffable glory of the Deity ; and in the 
most perfect and refined pleasures of the soul. It is 
not of this world : it seeks not pomp and glory. 
The church moves on, through time, and takes her 
share of the world's comforts and pleasures. But 
her home is not on this earth ; it is in heaven ! 

But popery is a mere creature of earthly origin ; 
proud, and gorgeous in its meretricious ornaments. 
Under her pompous dress, she is a degraded, mean, 
vicious, and idolatrous thing. She puts on an air 
of beauty, and fascination. But it is the beauty 
and gayety of a base and immodest one ; and she 
fascinates only those who are far from the paths of 
virtue. She is wholly of this world ; her laws, 
her dogmas, her policy, her ritual, are all of this 
world. Her prelates, and her head, are cunning, 
restless, and ambitious statesmen : her priests mere 
men of the world. There have been, and still 
are many honourable exceptions, such as the Fen- 
elons, the Massillons, the Bourdalous, the Paschals, 
and similar stars of glory. But as a body, they 
are mere men of pleasure, ringleaders in all the 
frivolity, impiety, licentiousness, and infidelity of 
their respective towns ! Monasteries and nunneries 
reared by them, are dens of villany, pollution, and 
murder ! Priests, strictly speaking, are the officers 
and soldiers in the pope's grand standing army. 



180 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

They are carefully detached from allegiance to the 
government where they live : except only to save 
appearances, and court popularity. They do their 
service to the pope in a manner vastly more effi- 
ciently, than by open war on us. '* Give me only 
the training of a nation's youth for one generation, 
and I ask no more, to new mould a state, and over- 
throw the best consolidated government in the 
world." That is the policy of the pope ; that of Met- 
lernich ; that of the Jesuits, who are now swarming 
over our land. That is the present policy of Bishop 
England, which the gentlemen of the South are, 
with unparalleled infatuation, permitting him to 
employ upon their negro population ! Give the 
Roman priests only the education of our future 
magistrates, representatives, and statesmen, and of 
the future mothers in our nation, and they will not 
thank the Holy Alliance for even one battalion of 
the thousands of their standing army. If ever this 
republic fall, it will fall by knaves corrupting the 
people, and poisoning the minds of our future offi- 
cers, and rulers. 

Now, this is what the pope's standing army, in 
the grand moral invasion, and assault on our re- 
public, are precisely labouring to effect. We have 
endeavoured, fellow-citizens, to exhibit to you their 
principles, which they have in charge from the 
pope, to propagate, in all schools, and colleges, 
wherever they can possibly make an impression on 
our yonng men, and young women. And now, we 
are to show you that this army of priests is, by 
POLICY, and character, perfectly fitted and pre- 
pared for the fatal worjc. 

First: They are cut off, by an admirable stroke 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 181 

of policy, from all the ties and associations that 
bind man to home, and their comitry. Celibacy, or 
as they facetiously call it, — chastity, — is the mas- 
ter-piece of all the crafty parts of this grand inven- 
tion of Satan. The Romish priest leads a wander- 
ing, loose, licentious life ; and like the every day 
rake, he scoffs at the holy married state, " which is 
honourable in all!" How true it is, that all false 
religions have the one common uniform character 
and type, namely, — pollution and cruelty! — 
Every Romish priest knows exactly what we mean. 
Let him only reflect on a few of the scenes of his 
past life ! 

Now, a Roman priest is not only fitted in mJnd 
for his cruel work ; but he is an isolated being, cut 
off from all the common interests of man. His cold 
and chilled heart feels not the heaven of an en- 
chanting family group, of wife, children, and rela- 
tives ! In Romish countries he can hold, and trans- 
mit no property of his own. He is a doomed soli- 
taire in the world. He has all the honest feelings 
and desires of humanity ; he can never honour 
them in a lawful way. He steals a cup of guilty 
pleasure here, and another there; he is conscious 
of guilt : is a crushed down and debased being. 
He has no relief from this but in a perfect reckless- 
ness, or in the oblivious scenes of disgusting drunk- 
enness. But some spirits can sustain any thing. 
They can live in habitual guiltiness : and have no 
father, no mother, no Avife, no child, no brother, no 
sister, no home ; and yet become sleek and jolly, 
and easy and contented. These are just the men 
to do the work of assault upon us, in this moral in- 
vasion. They are thoroughlv prepared : and they 
16 



182 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

are the desperate tools of a foreign ruler ; to do 
any work appointed them. By their doctrines they 
corrupt the public mind ; by their morals they pol- 
lute a whole neighbourhood ! 

Second : Bishops and priests are sworn vassals 
under the old perpetuated feudal system ; for every 
thing about popery partakes of the Dark Ages. 
They are bound to the only poiver that, with them, 
is above all civil powers ; and by the only oath 
which can bind their consciences. We copied 
above, the priest's oath. Here is part of the bishop's 
canonical oath. It is copied from Pontif. Roman. 
De consec. elect, in Episcop, p. 57. "Ego, P. P. 
ab hac hora, &c. — I from this hour will be faithful 
and obedient to my Lord, the pope, and his succes- 
sors : the councils they intrust to me, I will never 
discover to any man, to the injury of the pope. I 
will assist them to retain and defend the popedom, 
and the royalties of St. Peter, against all men. I 
will carefully conserve, defend, and promote the 
rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the 
pope. I will not be in any council, fact, or treaty, 
in which any thing* prejudicial to the person, rights, 
or power of the pope is contrived. And if I shall 
know any such things, I will hinder them with all 
my power, and will speedily make them knoAvn to 
the pope. To the utmost of my power, I will ob- 
serve the pope's commands, and I will make others 
observe them. And I will impugn and persecute 
all heretics, and all rebels, to my lord the pope." — 
See Barrow on the Pope's Supi'xviacy, for an entire 
copy of this oath, p. 42, New-York Edit. Thus, 
every popish bishop is sworn,-=:-.ljst. Never to dis- 
cover the pope's secret counsels, how treasonable 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 183 

soever they may be. 2d. To defend the pope's 
royalties against all men ; be they kings, presi- 
dents, governors, or fellow-citizens. 3d. To oppose 
and hinder to the utmost of their power, any thing 
treated of, or enacted by any legislature, prejudicial 
to the pope. 4th. To impugn and persecute all 
heretics; be they magistrates or private citizens. 
Here, then, Ave have every evidence that can rea- 
sonably be desired, of their unblushing avowal of 
absolute, and unconditional allegiance to the foreign 
power of Rome. And I repeat it, they are bound 
to the only power, which they believe above all civil 
powers, and by the only oath that can bind them. 
No Roman Catholic deems himself bound by an 
oath, unless that oath be on the holy cross, and ad- 
ministered by a genuine popish magistrate. No 
papist believes that a Protestant, that is a heretic, 
magistrate has a right to put him under a binding 
oath. He may swear it: he does swear it. But 
his master has " the dispensing power." And every 
oath in any way opposing Catholic iiiterests, is by 
his master declared to be, even on the spot, ipso 
facto null and void ! 

Third : Romish priests, in all popish lands, are 
not permitted by their master, the pope, to take an 
oath of allegiance to any secular prince. Here we 
pay no attention to private opinions, and the denials 
of the interested party. We shall assert nothing 
without producing authentic documents. 

Every one acquainted with English history will 
remember the contest between the English court 
and King James I. on the one side, and the pope on 
the other, relative to the oath of allegiance, framed 
for the Roman Catholics. 



184 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Here is the decision of the Council of the Late- 
ran, under Pope Innocent HI., Canon 43. " Ni- 
mis de jure, &c. — Those laymen carry their usur- 
pations, by divine right, too far, when they compel 
priests, — nihil temporale continentes, — holding no. 
temporalities, to take the oath of allegiance to their 
governments." Again: — " Sacri, &c. — By the 
authority of this holy council, we forbid that 
any clergyman give the oath of allegiance to any 
layman! !" See also Baionii Annal. Tom. x. sect. 
49, p. 155. Demoulin's Papal Usurpations, p. 40. 

And here is a case in point, in reference to the 
safety of our republic. The Romish canon law 
declares, — " Juramentum, &c. — That an oath 
against the interest or benefit of Mother Church, is 
not binding on any one." Lemma, ad cap. Sicut. 
27. Extra vag. Be jitrejurando. 

A case is thus put in their law, — "Of a prince, 
fearing some conspiracy against him, took an oath 
of some, that they should not be in any conspiracy 
against him ;" the parties sworn, desired to know 
how far this oath was binding. Pope Innocent HI. 
gave this ansAver. " Declaramus, &c. — We declare 
that you are not so bound by this oath, but that you 
may stand against that prince to whom you had 
so sworn, in the lawful defence of the rights, and 
honours, of the church, and your own." Extravag. 
De juram. Innoc. HI. cap. V ententes. 19. Demou- 
lin, p. 41. 

Fowrth : In popish lands, where the pope has 
his usual power, all priests are exempt from taxes 
and public imposts, to support government. The 
bishops and priests pay their quota of revenue, not 
to the government that protects them, but to the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBEJiTY, 185 

pope's treasury. He, therefore, taxes them; he 
taxes, and draws revenue from the subjects of other 
governments ! 

Besides the quotations of the bull In coena Bo- 
mini, in a former page, I offer the following : — 
*' Q,uod laici, &c. — That laymen imposing taxes on 
the clergy, are excommunicated, with all their abet- 
tors." "Sententise, &c.— All decrees and constitu- 
tions of laymen imposing taxes on the church, are 
void ; and can never be obligatory." The canon 
law forbidding the clergy to be taxed, is found in 
Cap. NoTi minus, 4. Cap. Adversus, 7. And in the 
Extravag. De i?nmunitate Eccles. See Demoulin's 
Papal Usurp, p. 43. And the bull against Henry 
VHL, sect. 20 ; and Council of Trent, Sess. 25. 
cap. 20. 

16* 



186 POPERV, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS A PRIVILEGED AND 
EXCLUSIVE ORDER IN POPISH LANDS. 



Proof continued — Priests in popish countries not amenable 
to the civil magistrates — Their master dispenses in all 
oaths. 



" Jura, norjura, veritatemque dencga !" 
Swear, forswear, and deny the truth ! 

Jesuit Maxirn. 



Fifth: Romish priests, where popery is the ex- 
clusive religion, are not amenable to cival authority. 
Here we mast distino-uish between the dosfmas of 
popery, and the facts of the case. Some nations 
never submitted entirely to this infringement ; 
others regained their independence. But still this 
dogma of popery was not given up. Here is a 
specimen of it. " dui contra, &c. — All magis- 
trates are excommunicated, who interpose against 
ecclesiastical persons, in any criminal cause, be it 
even murder, or high treason." See Filiucius, 
Moral. QuEest. Tract. 16; cap. 11. sect. 307. 309. 
Canon Law: Canon Siquis, 29, caus. 17. Gtuaest. 
4. Demoulin, p. 44. 

The attempt of the papal legates to obtain the 
sanction of the Trent Council to this, was defeated 
by the Galilean ambassadors, through a compro- 
mise. But the popes never gave it up. Hence, 
the bull of Gregory IX., in 1580, declares, — "Ju- 
dex secularis, &c. — The secular judge may not 
condemn a priest : and if he do, he shall be excom- 
muuicaled." 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. J87 

In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV., issued the bull, 
"Pastoralis Romani," &c. In the 15th section, 
he pronounces "all those excommunicated, who 
bring ecclesiastics before lay tribunals." 

This bull was laid before the Maynooth profes- 
sor, Dr. McHale, in his examination before the 
royal commissioners in 1 826. He endeavoured to 
explain it so as to mean nothing. But a few ques- 
tions brought out this admission. " Benedict's bull," 
said he, " refers to the ancient jurisprudence pre- 
vailing in Catholic countries, in Europe generally, 
and I think it is the common law of Eng^land. The 
clergy were a privileged class : they had their own 
tribunals ; and if any person should cite them be- 
fore the lay tribunals, he Vv'as supposed to violate 
not only the obedience he owed to the pope, but the 
civil jurisprudence of his country." That is to 
say,— because popery had so completely triumphed 
in these lands, that it had obtained from the civil 
law the recognition of its ghostly courts, as supe- 
rior to that law in its claims over the priests ; there- 
fore, he who did not submit to these ghostly courts, 
and go into them, instead of the civil court, was 
supposed to violate obedience to civil law ! Ad- 
mirable logic ! 

The proper reply of his examiners to this, — 
was the calling of the Jesuits' attention to the fact, 
exhibited in the said bull, — " that all persons are 
excommunicated, without exception, or without 
any limitation of time, or place, who bring Roman 
priests before lay tribunals." 

Final]}', Bellarmine presents us the universal 
sentiment of the popish church, I)e Clericis\JAh.\. 
cap. 28. " Et5i clerici, &c. Although the clergy 



188 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

are bound to obey the civil laws, they cannot, how- 
ever, be punished by any civil judge ; nor by any 
means drawn before a secular tribunal of the ma- 
gistracy." This position the Jesuit attempts to 
prove from councils, from the constitutions of the 
emperors, from the decrees of popes ; and also from 
reason. " For," says he, "it would be very absurd 
that the sheep," that is, the civil magistrates, 
" should sit in judgment on the shepherds," that is, 
the Romish priests ! 

Sixth : Priests and lay members, faithful to the 
popish church, can never be republican citize7is ; 
and no confidence can be reposed in any oath of 
allegiance that they may see fit to swear. We 
owe it to ourselves, to our country, and to the Ro- 
man catholics, to establish fully this heavy charge. 

\st. They are the Pope^ s subjects. " Rome is the 
capital of the Christian world." Its chief is our 
sovereign lord the pope ; " even our Lord God the 
pope." These phrases are familiar to every priest: 
they are titles dear to his soul. From the pope's 
supremacy he has no appeal. And we have their 
own sentiment on this point. The Archbishop of 
Tuam lately published to his suffragans the cheer- 
ing news, that " His Holiness the pope was about 
to pay a visit to his Roman Catholic subjects in 
IrelandP 

*' True," say they, " but this is only in spiritual 
matters." I have just been proving, on the con- 
trary, that the pope claims, and by the canon law 
possesses, temporal power. But even admitting 
this statement, we say, be it so. Only give me 
such a poAver as the priest has over his victim, at 
the confessional ; only give me a tithe of the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 189 

power which the pope has over his w^hole flock ; 
only let me be lord over his conscience; and pre- 
scribe his religious creed to him ; only let me be 
a papal god to him, to absolve him from all sin : and 
relieve him from purgatory, and open heaven to 
him ; and I will show you soon whether they are 
not my subjects ! Only grant me this power, and 
I shall engage to make him, at one tim.e, a repub- 
lican of the sans culottes order ; and presently a mon- 
archist, and a lover and patron of despotism ; then 
a conspirator against his country, prompt and effi- 
cient in renew^ing the Gunpoioder plot ; and burn- 
ing with zeal to give Pope Gregory XVL, a sim- 
ilar opportunity, with his predecessor, Gregory 
XIIL, of celebrating another St. Bartholomew 
massacre; and that, too, in the United States. 

Papists being, therefore, "the subjects of the 
pope," let us see what confidence we can repose in 
their allegiance to our constitution, even backed 
with their solemn oath. 

1st. In every oath of a Roman Catholic this 
principle is scrupulously kept in view, namely, 
'-'that no inferior can swear fealty to any superior, 
to the detriment of another greater superior." This 
dogma is of unquestionable authority with Roman 
catholics : its existence is distinctly admitted by 
the Maynooth professors. All their attempts to 
shuffle its meaning out of existence, are utterly 
vain. Here are the very words of their Text 
Book admitted by Professor Anglade. " Juramen- 
tum fit, &c. The oath is always made under this 
tacit and understood condition, from the nature of 
law itself, that it is deyenderd upon the act of the 
ferson who has the right of contradicting it.^^ 
Again ; — " In omni juramento, &c. In every oath 



190 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

the right of the superior is always understood to 
be excepted." Hear Professor Anglade's explana- 
tion of this : " that is, no person can bind himself 
to do any thing, which will, in any w^ay, go against 
the rights of his superior, &c." See the 8 Rep. of 
the Com. on Irish Educ. p. 164, 165. 

Nov/, every papist is "the subject of the pope," 
bound to him by ties paramount to all ties, and to 
all human law. Hence, if we apply this law to 
the conscience of the Roman Catholic, he must 
admit that, when he takes the oath of allegiance 
and fealty to our republican government, "that 
oath is dependent on the act of the person, (the 
pope,) who has the right of contradicting it," and 
thereby setting it aside. Let the Roman Catholic 
live under any government not decidedly Catholic ; 
and let him take any oath that is required of him, 
still his master is " the superior who has the right 
to contradict liis oath." He is precisely in the 
predicament of a wife, w^ho, in the absence of her 
husband, has given her vow to another wedded 
lord ; her husband returns, and claims her ; and her 
second marriage vows are, i^so facto, null and void. 

It is plausibly urged, that " we wrong the Cath- 
olics ; that they take the oath of fealty to our free 
government, v^ith the utmost frankness." Our re- 
ply is brief: — so in the case above alluded to, the 
wife frankly gives her troth to her new^ly wedded 
lord: but that never had the proper sanction; and 
its obligation ceases on the claim of her true hus- 
band. The papist says, " I give my solemn oath 
of fealty to this government ; and it is binding on 
me." But this is sheer deception : he has a supe- 
rior,— the pope ; and he has never said that it is 
binding on him^. On the contrary, one word from 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 191 

him through the priest gives all his vows and oaths 
to the winds ! 

2. In the Romish church, as we have already 
shown, there is lodged with the pope a dispensing 
poAver, which sets aside, at its will, the most sacred 
oaths. The canon law places in the pope's hand 
the power "dispensare contra jus nationale, et con- 
tra apostolicum," to dispense against national law, 
and against apostolical law.'" See Gratian. Canon, 
2, 3, 4, 5. Cans. 15. ausst. 6. 

This carried into practice will efface from a peo- 
ple, all respect for the solemnity of an oath. It will 
do more than this : it will induce a people to deem 
it even praiseworthy to break a5iy oath, if it will 
subserve the cause of their church, and the pope. 
Hence at the bidding of their confessor, they will 
take an oath, most manifestly contradicting their 
own belief The priest explains, gives absolution, 
or dispenses, as the case may require, and all is 
right ! 

I shall illustrate this by a case or two, only re- 
marking that the history of the popish kingdoms 
of Europe, exhibits innumerable such instances of 
the pope's dispensations, loosing princes from their 
oaths and sacred treaties. 

The first I shall quote is that of Charles V., 
formerly alluded to. The barons of Spain, to 
shield the cruelly oppressed Moors, caused this 
important clause to be inserted in the king's coro- 
nation oath : " that he would, on no pretence what- 
ever, expel the Moors ; nor force them to be bap- 
tized: that he would not desire to be dispensed 
with as to that oath ; nor accept of any dispensa- 
tion. And if he ever did, all that he should, 
thence, do, should be, ipso facia ^ null and void." 



192 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

In the face of this oath, and in defiance of the bar- 
ons, and the nation, Pope Clement VIL laid his 
injunctions on the emperor, "forthwith to proceed 
against the Moors, by compelling them to become 
Christians, or driving them into exile. And to 
set his conscience at rest, he issued his bull in these 
words :- — " We release your majesty from the obli- 
gation of the oath taken by you in the estates of 
the kingdoms, never to expel those infidels ; ah- 
solving you from all censures, and penalties of the 
guilt of perjury: and dispensing with you, as to 
that promise," &c. See Geddes' Tracts on Pope- 
ry, vol, i. pp. 36 — 39. 

The other is a case which occurred lately in our 
own country. It is detailed in The Literary and 
Religious Magazine, of Baltimore, for October, 
1835. I allude to the oath taken by Judge Gaston of 
North Carolina. This gentleman, one of the most 
benevolent and accomplished of men, is descended 
from the pious and illustrious Hugonots of France, 
and Presbyterians of Ireland. But he was seduced 
into the Roman Catholic religion by his mother ; 
and is now the professor of " a system Vv^hich all 
his forefathers abhorred;- and has become the 
humble votary of those who shed, like water, the 
best blood that he inherits." This gentleman was 
solicited to take the office of judge. But there was 
a test in the way. I am not going to defend or 
oppose this : at present, I have only to do Avith 
facts. Mr. G. knew that the o2d article of the 
constitution of North Carolina excludes all papists 
from holding ofHce. It runs thus : " No person 
who shall deny the existence of God, or the truth 
OF THE Protestant religion; or the divine 
authority of the Old and New Testaments: or who 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 193 

shall hold religious principles incompatible with the 
freedom and safety of the state, shall be capable of 
holding office, or place of trust, or profit in the 
civil government of this state." 

Now, it is impossible to mistake this : no con- 
struction can be put on it, so as to make it open a 
door to an avowed papist. No Roman Catholic 
can declare on oath that he does believe the truth 
of the Protestant religion : none of them can swear 
that he does not deny the Protestant religion. The 
creed of Pope Pius, to which he yields his faith, 
declares that "no man can be saved out of the Ro- 
man Catholic faith !" 

Mr. G. hesitated ; when urged by his political 
friends to take the office, he gave an evasive an- 
sv/er : he would think of it. Did he take meas- 
ures to get this article obliterated ? Or, did he wait 
until it should be erased from, the constitution 1 No : 
he went to Baltimore ; there the chief dispensator 
of the pope resides: there he had his scruples re- 
lieved. From that city he wrote his acceptance 
of the office ; came home : in due time took the 
oath ; and with the fullest belief in the popish re- 
ligion, he stands before the nation, and swears by 
Almighty God that he, a Roman Catholic, will, to 
his utmxost power, truly defend and sustain the con- 
stitution of the state which declares that no Romian 
Catholic can or shall hold office under it ! 

Can any man of honour and integrity defend 
Charles V. or Judge Gaston in this matter ? Will 
any man contend that their plea of a dispensation, 
or an absolution, will palliate the crime before 
God and man ? In a Avord, can government, or a 
-jjjpivil court, have any confidence in a papist's oath? 
17 



194 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS A PRIVILEGED CLASS 

OF MEN. 

Proof of this continued — T%ey have for many ages been th^ 
pope's tax-gatherers— Under them popery the cause of pau- 
perism and distress to an immeasurable extent — TheProof, 



" The priest 
Did sheaf his sheep ; and having packed the wool 
Sent theoi unguarded to the hill of wolves, 
And to the bowl delib 'lately sat down ; 
And with his mistress mocked at sacred things. 

POLLOK. 



Seventh : — The Roman priests have, in eveiy 
age, been the pope's tax-gatherers. — " One is led 
to imagine," said M'Gavin, "that the pope is no 
Other than the incarnation of the ancient Mammon ; 
and that the priests are his tax-gatherers." — Popery 
is a profound political system, invented and adapted 
by master spirits, to procure wealth and power. 
Every doctrine, every rite, every office, every thing 
in it has its price. Its seven sacraments are no- 
thing more than seven markets, opened as St. John 
beheld in vision, "to traffic in the souls of m.en." 
In baptism, for instance, the humblest parents sel- 
dom get off in our cities, under a large sum; and. 
even the godfathers and godmothers are pat under 
heavy contributions. At the confessional, each 
votary is taxed under the name of offerings. The 
sacrament of matrimony yields heavy revenues. 
It is not left to the parties to make small volun- 
tary donations. A heavy charge is made; and as 
confession and ahsohition must precede, the priest 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 195 

contrives to make it doubly productive. The mass 
for the quick, and the dead yields enormous reve- 
nues by the hands of the Roman publicans. It is 
an ingenious scheme of raising money on false pre- 
tences. The priest charges from $20 to $500, and 
even a $1,000, to procure " repose for a soul;" that is 
to say, — to release it from the fire of purgatory. 
The dying must not be left to escape from them 
without the oppressive tax for his extreme unctio7i. 
The Roman Catholic, in a word, is quite over- 
whelmed with incessant and ruinous taxes, during 
every week of his life. He is not permitted to go 
out of the world in peace, without an exorbitant 
tax. And, what no civil tyrant ever thought of, 
they are taxed after they are dead and gone! 
Their relatives must pay the priest not only their 
own soul-taxes, but taxes from generation to gener- 
ation, for their dead fathers, and their dead mothers, 
and their dead children ! Were there ever such 
ingenious tax-gatherers under the heavens 1 ! 

Now the natural effects of this system are pau- 
perism and distress. It is quite evident that the Irish 
Catholics obtain as good vv^ages as do the Protestants 
of the sam^e class. But while the latter acquire 
competence, and often affluence ; few of the former 
rise above the humblest competence. They are 
poor when they arrive : they remain poor to the 
end of their lives. Their priests alone can tell 
what becomes of their hard earned wasfes. Did 
the Protestants submit to the insufferable taxations 
of the pope's seven sacraments, — did they frequent 
the Confessional, qtA believe in the fiction of purga- 
tory; and consent to buy a vile im.postor's good 
will to the kingdom of heaven, — verily, they and 



196 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

their children should speedily be abject paupers 
also ! 

Compare the poverty stricken South of Ireland 
with the smiling farms, and happy homes of Ulster. 
The first is popish : the last is protestant. Con- 
trast the lower orders in Spain, Italy, and Austria, 
with those of England, Scotland, Holland, and our 
own happy country. What a difference ! It is the 
contrast of poverty, ignorance, fihh, slavery ; with 
light, affluence, comfort, purity, and liberty ! 

The sums of money abstracted from our humble 
fellow-citizens by the involuritan/ coninhuiions im- 
posed on them by Romish priests, does absolutely 
exceed belief Can we not prevail on the commis- 
sioners on the line of the Pennsylvania canals, and 
rail-roads, to speak out, and tell the public, how 
many millions of dollars hare passed, by involuri' 
tary contributions, into the hands of the monthly 
confessors? — " I have a neighbour, a Roman priest, 
who makes his $12,000 a y^ear," said a relative of 
mine to me, a few months ago, who lives in Mary- 
land. " This priest lives in H ; along the line 

of the rail-road, he has had a thousand labourers 
in his parish : these he compels to the confessional 
as regularly each month, as the moon comes. Each 
of these, as is evident from the commissioner's 
.statement, pay one dollar, monthly, for a full abso- 
lution. This gives him $12,000 a year ; and he 
has besides, all the taxes on the other six sacra- 
ments!" 

In Eno-land, the extortion was beyond calcula- 
tion. What must have been the amount of robbery 
when priests could erect such cathedrals, such mon- 
asteries, and such abbeys, — as for instance, that of 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 197 

Glastenbury, where they fed, daily, five hundred idle 
monks, and could accommodate five hundred lazy 
pilgrims, with their horses, of a night ; and also fed 
the poor of half a parish, daily, with the priests' 
fragments ! The mortmain law of England, which 
still stands unrepealed in our own statute book, was 
originally enacted to prevent the lands of England 
from passing entirely into the hands of the lordly 
priests ! 

There is a singular ancient document, entitled 
*' Tke Londoft Beggars^ Petition to Henry VIII., 
against the lazy and vicious priests.''^ It sets forth 
their grievances and miseries, by reason of these 
universal spiritual beggars, who were obtaining all 
England from the living, to secure the salvation of 
the dead ! 

The kingdom of Spain, it has been computed, is 
taxed at the rate of about fifty millions of dollars, 
annually, to support the Roman Catholic priest- 
hood, and pay the pope's revenue ! 

The Republic of Venice, says Scipio De Ricci, 
ordered an account to be drawn up of the money 
extracted, each year, from its subjects, *' by the per- 
nicious organization of the Romish clergy." The 
sums were set down under the heads of annual ben- 
efices, pensions, papal bulls, indulgences, dispen- 
sations, in all six millions, and seven hundred and 
eighty thousand francs ; or, one million three hun- 
dred and Miy thousand dollars, annually ! ! 

In the collection of these incredible revenues of 
the pope, the priests have been his tax-gatherers in 
all lands. Can any one furnish us the amount of 
revenue, or taxes paid to the foreign power of Rome, 
by ** the pope's Guhjects," in the United States ? Will 
17* 



198 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

any lay-gentleman of the Roman Catholic church 
take it upon him to call upon the priests, or the 
bishops, to publish one year's amount of money ex- 
tracted from the citizens of this republic, " by the 
pernicious organization of the clergy," as the Ve- 
netian government did'? For the priests, and the 
bishops, — you know, they never will do it them- 
selves. The Romish priesthood never gave ccny 
account of moneys received; nor the amount, or 
object of the expenditure. This salutary custom 
is purely Protestant, and republican. With us, the 
people demand, and receive a full annual account 
of all the sums received from their voluntary con- 
trihutions ; and of the expenditures thereof. No 
people whatever can be said to enjoy real liberty, 
who are deprived of this inalienable right. 

Can it be believed that men, professing to be 
Christians and republicans, will long tolerate this 
class of impudent and ir responsible tax-gatherers, 
prowling in civilized society, and intruding them- 
selves into private families ? By what fatuity comes 
it to pass, that Roman priests, the pope's acknow- 
ledged tax-gatherers, are not as universally odious 
in this republic, as were the Roman tax-gatherers 
among the ancient Jews ? Are we less virtuous ? 
Are we less patriotic ? Are we less jealous of our 
civil and religious liberties ? Are we less suscep- 
tible of insult and degradation than were the Jews ? 
I beg to leave the solution of this, with those of 
our fellow-citizens who have hitherto remained neu- 
tral in this national contest with popery. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 199 



CHAPTER X. 

We have established the following among other 
doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic 
church. 

1st. That the Pope claims to be supreme mon- 
arch of the world, in all things, temporal and spir- 
itual. And every true Roman Catholic believes it 
in his soul, and conscience. 

2d. That, in particular, he claims the supreme 
power over all civil rulers, in temporal things, ex- 
communicating and deposing them, when he pleases. 

3d. That he allows no king, prince, magistrate, 
or court of justice, to think, or decide for them- 
selves, on civil, or in religious matters, after he has 
uttered the sentence ex cathedra. 

4th. That he allows neither individuals of " his 
subjects," nor nation, the use of their conscience to 
think, or decide for themselves, in matters of reli- 
gion, or politics. If a nation adheres to a king de- 
posed by the pope, they are guilty of adhering to 
what the pope, "the Lord God of their church," 
has deposed and doomed, and they are, ipso facto, 
excommunicated and condemned in time, and for 
ever ! 

Hence, no Roman Catholic that is true to his 
principles, has the rights of private judgment : nor 
is he a free agent. The pope, and his confessors, 
are the lords of his body, soul, and conscience. 

5. That he claims and exercises the right and 
power to dissolve the civil government of a nation ; 
by suspending the functions of the whole body of 



200 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

the magistrates : by absolving- the people from their 
oath of allegiance ; by ordering the military and 
navy to rise in arms against their rulers. We must 
not be so indiscreet as to judge of popery by what 
it is here ; or by what it is in some parts of Europe. 
Here it has not yet reached its power : there it has 
been shorn of its power. We must do the sii' i?ct 
justice by conceiving of the system of popery a^ it 
is laid down in its unchanged creed ; and as these 
principles have been fully carried out in the days 
of its power. 

The history of Europe, as we have seen, proves 
that the pope exercised the power of dissolving 
civil governments that offend him. 

6th. That he claims the power of appointing a 
civil ruler over a people, without the national con- 
sent being asked or given ; in like manner as he 
claims the power of appointing bishops, without the 
leave of the people being given, or even solicited. 

7th. That he holds it as a fundamental dogma of 
practical popery, that it is no rebellion in a people 
to rise against a government that has been deposed, 
and dissolved by the pope: that the only rebellion 
of a people lies in their refusing obedience to the 
pope, by sustaining their deposed magistrates. 

8th. That in purely Roman Catholic countries, 
no ecclesiastic is amenable to the civil and criminal 
courts of their country : that they cannot be tried 
by laymen ; that they cannot be condemned, or pun- 
ished, or even taxed by laymen ! They are the 
pope's standing army in implicit, and firm allegi- 
ance to that despot. 

9th. That in reference to another portion of their 
sacerdotal services, they are the pope's tax-gatherers. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 201 

They distribute the pope's ghostly wares, such as 
indulgences, bulls of induction, dispensations, par- 
dons for sin sfrace conveyed to each recinient of his 
seven sacraments. And in return they draw in 
their unnumbered millions into the papal treasury. 
And, thus, in their vocation, they inadvertently ful- 
fil the Apostle John's prediction, — they "traffic in 
men's souls." Revel, xviii. 13. 

10th. That the killingof Protestants, which they 
are pleased to call heretics, is no murder. But, on 
the contrary, it is a holy duty which the faithful owe 
the church : and that the papists who fall by the 
hands of the executioner, as assassins; or who fall 
in the field of battle against heretics, are martyrs 
that sleep in the bosom of the church: and accord- 
ingly, they are enrolled in red letters, in the saintly 
calendar. 

1 1th. That no one practice, or dogma, of even 
the most illiberal and savage character of the Dark 
Ages, has been revoked, or condemned by the pope. 
Popery AS it was, stands forward in bold relief at 
this day. And it is even now, waiting with irre- 
pressible anxiety the dawning of the day when her 
power and glory shall be resuscitated! 



CONCLUSION. 



" Ilhuriel ! search this garden ; search each nook ; 

They tell of some infernal spirits seen 

Hitherward bent, (who could have thought?) escaped, 

Ti)e bars of hell, on errand bad, no doubt 

Such, where ye find, seize fast, and hither bring!" 

Milton. 

Such is the power organized in the papal church ; 
such are its principles, and its objects. It is an ex- 
clusive sect in religion and politics ; it allows of 
no superior, no equal, no rival. It sustains itself by- 
fire and sword. Persecution is made the duty of 
each of its bishops, as we have shown by the words 
of their oath. Five different forms of persecution 
are resorted to : 1st. By the papal curse, by bell, 
book, and candle : 2. By private assassinations. 
3. By secret plots, as the Gunpower Plot. 4. By 
national treachery, and public massacres ; and the 
inquisition. 5. By open wars ; as the German thirty- 
years war ; and these against the Waldenses ; and 
the Crusades against the Jews and Moors in Spain ; 
and the Turks in the East. 

.These are the men, and their principles, who are 
now making gigantic efforts to overrun our happy 
republic. All that the Be Propaganda of France 
can do to extend this power, and these outrageous 
principles, among us, is now being done. All that 
the De Propaganda in Rome can do to towards it, 
is now attempted. All that the Leopoldine Institu- 
tion of Vienna can do, by money, and by Jesuit 
priests, poured in upon us, is now going forward 
over our land. All that can be done by pouring in 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 203 

colonies of German, and Irish Catholics, thorough- 
ly organized, with the proper quota of priests, is 
now going on, among our good-natured statesmen, 
and quiet unsuspecting fellow-citizens. 

No great pains have been taken to conceal the 
facts in this matter. We have every evidence but 
the open confession of the conspirators. Some of 
the prime movers have made striking avowals. 
Bishop England, in a circular published in Ireland, 
shows, that there is an organized system of means 
in operation, to throw in upon us immense bodies 
of popish emigrants. And in his late address, is- 
sued after his return from Europe, he states that, 
" France and C4ermany, aid the Roman Catholic 
missions in America." *' The Leopoldine Institution 
continues to feel an interest in our concerns," adds 
he. " Rome has this year contributed to our ex- 
traordinary expenses. Even the Holy Father aids 
us from his private purse." 

The cen re and power of this foreign conspiracy 
against us, are at Vienna. Were it merely a religious 
concern, and simply the propagation of their super- 
stitious creed, the location of the grand movers 
thereof, would be, — not at Vienna, nor in any other 
city, but at Rome, where their Missionary Society 
has always been. It is of the emperor, and the 
princes who sustain the Leopoldine Institution, that 
Dr. England says, — " They feel an interest in our 
concerns, — and have granted larger contributions 
than usual." Now, what does the Austrian empe- 
ror care for ou7' conversion, or for the religion of 
emigrants ? What does the Holy Alliance care 
for the Romish superstition ? Ancl prince Metter- 
nich ! Has he become a relisfionist ! An atheist 



204 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

burning with zeal for the propagation of religion! 
He cares nothing for the pope and his religion, as 
such. No man ever suspected him of caring for 
any form of religion, as such. He has his own 
god, — and to it is offered all his incense. That 
god is the genius of despotism ! and he will do any 
thing, and operate by any agents, to extinguish light 
and liberty. At the head of the Holy Alliance he 
sits ; and he, and his regal associates, would over- 
turn heaven and earth to secure the reign of dark- 
ness, and that despotism, w^hich crushes the people of 
Austria, Prussia, Poland, and Russia. 

Charles X., when on the throne of France, gave 
frank utterance to his cordial co-operation with Aus- 
tria. " To educate and convert America," said his 
minister, in his published report, p. 89, '' independ- 
ent of its purely spiritual design, is of great po- 
litical INTEREST." 

The Older of the Jesuits, we have seen, was re- 
stored to their former glory, and devilish capacity 
for mischief, in 1814. There were tiiw. reasons for 
their revival; the sinking cause of civil despotism: 
the decline of popery, and spiritual tyranny. These 
tools of the pope, and the legitimates, are now in 
full operation in Europe. But their zeal and im- 
prudence, every one sees, are causing the tide of 
public opinion, and the genius of liberty, to set in 
against them. They blame, and not without rea- 
son, our republic, as the prime cause of all this ex- 
citement in Europe against them.. And, as long as 
this great and free nation is in the full tide of the 
most successful experiment of self-government, 
they know that the people of Europe will not bear 
much lono-er with the thrones of tyrants, and the 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 205 

systems of misrule, devised by priest-ridden and 
warlike men, in the Dark Ages. We have already 
shown this fully. The lectures of Schlegel speak 
volumes. Hence all the tyrants of Europe hate us ; 
and seek our downfall with immoveable persever- 
ance. 

And well do the Metterniches, and Schlegels 
know that popery is just that fatal weapon, — and 
that the Jesuits are just the cold-blooded conspira- 
tors that will work out their salvation for them, in 
our downfall, if heaven permit hum.an means to 
achieve it. 

The papists, we have seen, are duly organized 
by the Jesuits. Our unbounded freedom granted 
to all sects, give dangerous facilities to foreign tac- 
ticians, who choose to operate on us, under the mask 
of Holy Religion. This sect has an admirable 
capacity for stratagem. One word from Vienna 
moves the pope : his Holiness' rescript moves the 
archbishop of Baltimore : his circular, in his turn, 
moves each bishop here, in twenty-four hours. And 
each bishop .ules the priests, and the priests the 
people, absolutely and promptly, as does any cap- 
tain his battalion of soldiers. 

And it is a fact, that they avail themselves of all 
these facilities. The Roman Catholics, as a reli- 
gious sect, move in a body in politics. Every body 
sees it, in all our cities. Their bishops have been 
heard to boast how many votes they can bring to the 
polls. It is no uncommon thing for the priest, 
after mass, to name the candidate from the altar, 
whom he commands his flock to support at the 
polls. I have in my possession a letter signed I. y 
two eminent citizens of Monroe County-. Michii:'::!!, 
18 



206 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

setting forth that this was the practice of the priest 
there : and that tickets Avere prepared by the pa- 
pists, of some particular colour, so that e^ch voter 
might be duly watched by the priest's spies, at the 
polls. 

The college of Bardstown, Kentucky, is strictly 
under foreign influence. No layman can be a 
trustee: the popish bishop is, ex officio, — " The 
Moderator ;" and five priests are trustees. When 
their service was out, he had the exclusive power of 
increasino" their number; and of naminsf the sa- 
cerdotal trustees. And the pope has the sole power 
of appointing the bishop. Thus, the pope and Mat- 
ternich have their college in our land. In this col- 
lege, previous to our exposures of popery, two hun- 
dred youth, all Protestants with the exception of a 
few, were being trained by Jesuits.* 

Bishop Flaget, the head of this college, wheri 
writing to his masters in Europe, relative to the dif- 
ficulties in the way of making the Indians papists, told 
the pope, and the Austrians, that the main difficulty 
"was their continual traffic among the whites; 
which cannot he hindered as long as this republic 
shall subsist.''^ Leop. Report. 

Mr. Baraga, another of the Austrian Jesuits, in 
his letters to his masters, bewails the evils of *' a 
free government." Speaking of some who refused 
to have their children baptized, he laments that he 
could not here, compel them. The whole cause of 

* We have been informed that the late successful exposures 
of popery induced the great body of these young repubhcans 
to escape from this den of Jesuitism. The number of the pu- 
pils was lately reduced to about thirty; and these were mostly 
boys. By an exertion they have contrived to muster about 
lifty lads. 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 207 

these evils he declares to be " this too free govern- 
ment.^^ 

In another of their letters to the Leopoldine So- 
ciety, the priests in the valley of the west, lament 
that there is no union of church and state; and 
sneeringly bemoan our atheism. " The govern,' 
ment of the United States,''^ S3,y they, ''has thought 
fit to adopt a complete indifference towards all 
religions P See Gluart. Register for Feb., 1830, 
p. 198. 

The priests, when speaking of our republic, 
and our fellow-citizens, in contrast with the em- 
peror, and the Austrians, express unaffected pity 
over us, as " unhappy heathens, and obstinate here- 
tics T But their own white slaves of Austria 
they laud to heaven, as "the noble and generous 
inhabitants of Austria." They tell their masters 
that we " are a republic in which the light of faith 
has not hitherto shined." On the other hand, the 
Leopoldine Institution they call " an ornament to 
the illustrious Austrian empire." Our United 
States, with our self-government, they call " a vast 
country destitute of all spiritual and temporal 
resources^ Of the old emperor they say, " we 
cannot sufficiently extol our good emperor, did we 
even extol him to the third heavens." This is a 
frank exposition of the feelings, the aim, and object 
of these foreign emissaries ! 

They have long been making every effort to 
secure in their own hands, the education of our 
youth, male and female. And only give them the 
education of one generation of our citizens, and, 
as every one knows, they can do with the next 
whatsoever they please. And yet many of our 



208 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

Protestants are still so very blind to consequences, 
or, so reckless of their children's honour and salva- 
tion, as to place them in the infamous haunts of 
these Jesuits and nuns for education ; and so su- 
premely v/eak, as to believe a false knave averring 
that Jesuits never interfere with the religion of their 
pupils ! 

But we have most abundant evidence that these 
foreign conspirators are doing as much mischief 
by the 7nateriel of mobs and 'pauperism, thrown 
upon our shores in one continuous stream of tur- 
bulence and crime, as by their colleges and semi- 
naries. To these German and Irish colonies, the 
Schlegels and Metterniches may be conceived as 
thus addressing themselves, — " Go forth, ye men 
of the right spirit : our holy religion has trained 
you to put down the republican materiel I Go 
with zeal, and spread ignorance, bigotry, crime, 
and pauperism, every where in the great west. 
Excite mobs ; claim the full rights of the native 
citizens ; maintain your point by the Avar spirit ; 
oppose brute force to argument. Set all law at 
defiance. Bring their free institutions into con- 
tempt. They are a nation of ' heathens and here- 
tics ;' trample them with contempt under your faith- 
ful Catholic feet. Go, make the Americans like 
the Catholic Austrians; and the wild Catholic 
Irishmen. Then magnify the confusion you create ; 
proclaim them over all Europe. Show Ameri- 
cans that no government can exist without a great 
standing army. Show them that no power, but 
Austrian power of steel and bayonet, can rule such 
a population as you shall create. A republic ! 
A self-government ! Hold it up to utter scorn and 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 209 

ridicule. Teach a salutary lesson to those base 
Liberals of Europe, who dare forsake their native 
monarchy and legitimate princes ; and import the 
principles of American liberty ! 

" Go, our holy Catholic religion will effectually 
destroy republican liberty ! — Go forth — every Cath- 
olic added to the American population is one firm 
enemy more to their republic ! Go ye, one and 
all-— every convert to our Catholic doctrine is a 
glorious blow struck at the pillars of the temple of 
their liberty !" 

Now, does not every American citizen see that 
these tools, manufactured hy popery — ^these men 
of "the mob spirit" have actually begun their 
operations against us ? What an appalling in- 
crease of crime, turbulence, pauperism, and brutal 
mobs every year ? Look around you, and behold ! 
What are the elements of these mobs on the rail- 
roads in Maryland, and New- York? Foreign 
papists ! Who caused the mobs of Philadelphia? 
Foreign papists ! Who caused the mobs at our 
elections ? Foreign papists ! Who caused the mob 
and riot at the Broadway Hall, to put down free 
discussion? Foreign papists! Who caused the 
unjustifiable riot of Charlestown? The proud 
and impudent defiance given forth to public senti- 
ment by vicious foreign papists, from their den of 
pollution! Who dared ridicule our laws and 
government with this taunt that " This system of 
government may be very fine in theory, very fit 
for imitation on the part of those who seek the 
power of the mob, in contradistinction to justice 
and the public interest : but this republic is not of a 
nature to invite the reflecting part of the world ; 
18* 



210 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

and shows, at least, that it has faults. A public 
officer, in England, who would publicly avow a 
fear of executing his duty, and carrying into effect 
the law of the realm, ought to be, and would be 
thrust from his office by public opinion. This one 
fact ds condemnation 0/ the system of Ameri- 
can INSTITUTIONS, CONFIRMED LATELY BY NU- 
MEROUS OTHER PROOFS !" Who Uttered this 
outrageous and treasonable insult on our American 
institutions? One of the pope's subjects, the editor 
of the Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph! Who 
holds it in his power to let loose mobs on us at his 
will? "I told him," said the Lady Superior on 
her oath, "that Bishop Fen wick's influence over 
10,000 brave Irishmen might lead to the destruc- 
tion of his property, and that of others !" Who 
controlled the mobs of Maryland by a word, when 
the civil power was really not able to do it ? The 
priest, a subject of a foreign power ! Who has 
dared to enact civil laws, and impose them on In- 
dians, in our land ? This clique of foreign papists. 
" On the 5th of Aug., 1832," says Baraga, in his 
letter to his masters in Austria, — " the R. C. bishop 
called in the chiefs of the Ottawas, and made 
known to them some civil laws, which he had 
made for them. The Indians received them with 
pleasure, and promised solemnly to obey them. 
The Romish missionary and chiefs administer 
these laws." Who insulted a senator of Ohio, for 
refusing to uncover his head before a Romish 
bishop, vociferating, — " Hats off! the bishop is 
coming?" A mob of foreign papists at Cincin- 
nati ! Who have their dungeon cells under their 
cathedrals, in which they claim, as inquisitors of 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 211 

their own diocess, to imprison free men in our 
republic? Foreign popish bishops! And the 
facts respecting a man being so confined and 
scourged, in the cells at Baltimore, until he re- 
canted, have been published, and not to this day- 
contradicted ! Who compel their pupils to kneel 
in the dust before lordly priests ; and to kiss the 
floor, and the feet of their lady superiors ? The 
foreign papists do it daily in their seminaries, to 
crush the spirits of free republicans ! Who are in 
the habit of uttering ferocious threats " to assassi- 
nate and burn up" those Protestants who success- 
fully oppose Romanism ? The foreign papists ! 
I have in my possession the evidence of no less 
than six such inhuman threatenings against my- 
self Who are in the habit of bullying and insult- 
ing native Americans ; and loudly boasting that, 
in a short time, the Catholics will have the power ; 
and that the effectual plans are noio in full opera- 
tion to give them the complete victory over the 
Yankees? Foreign papists, even of the poorest 
and. most ignorant classes ; and who, therefore, can 
have learned these things only from their spiritual 
guides ! 

Behold, then, the enemy is at our gates ? — The 
crisis is approaching ! Rouse up, yotjng Ameri- 
cans, and hasten to your country's salvation! 
Rouse up your fathers and mothers ; your sisters 
and brothers, every where I The crisis is fast 
approaching ! Not a moment is to be lost ! You 
cannot hesitate on the question, whether you shall 
be free republicans, or crouch down as the chained 
bondslaves of foreign despots ! Hasten to the sal- 
vation of your beloved country! God anp our 



212 POPERY, THE ENEMY OF 

COUNTRY — is the watchword of every Christian 
and patriot, of every political party in the land! 
America expects every one of us to do our 
duty! 

the end. 



APPENDIX 



I. The Jesuits' oath of secrecy, I have given, at fall 
length, in my Letters in the Roinan Catholic Controversy 
of New- York^ p. 329, 2d Edit. The following is one sen- 
tence in it : "I swear, by Almighty God that the pope, 

by virtue of the keys given him by God, has power to de- 
pose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths, &c., 
all being illegal without the pope's sacred confirmation ; 
and that they may safely be destroyed. Therefore, I, to 
the utmost of my power, will defend this doctrine, and his 
holiness' rights and customs, against all usurpersJ'^ 

Behold the solemn oath of every Jesuit priest, among 
us, in this republic ! Every soul of them is a traitor ! 

II. Popery, incompatible with national prosperity. It 
wastes and impoverishes the country. It plunders the 
people, w^hom it first brutalizes. It sets up a power of an 
appalling character within a realm, and draws into its 
possession the wealth of the people, and the lands of the 
realm, and paralyzes the arm of civil government. 

These are just so many conclusions drawn from the his- 
tory of Roman Catholic nations. Select Spain, for in- 
stance. By a statement given in to the pope by the Span- 
ish dignitaries themselves ; it appears that six of the arch- 
bishops have an income of $1,162,500 : say, one million, 
one hundred and sixty-two thousand, and five hundred 
dollars ! Six of the bishops only have a revenue of 
$191,500! The income of the higher clergy is set down 
at two millions, and six hundred thousand dollars: that of 
canons, and minor canons, at nearly two millions of dol- 
lars. The cost of popery to Spain, annually, is more than 
fifty millions of dollars ! This is wrung from the people, 
and they have no benefit in return. But, on the contrary, 
an endless train of curses and ruin, temporal and spirit- 
ual, follows the cruel yoke of ghostly bondage 1 

The state of things in England, before the Reformation, 



214 APPENDIX. 

is set forth in a curious ancient document, which we here 
copy from Fox's Martyrology, old black letter copy; 
vol. ii. We referred to this, in p. 197 preceding, 

" Th£ supplication of the beggars of London^ scattered at 
a procession^ in Westminster^ before King Henry VIII.j de- 
daring the corruption of the Roman priests^ 

"To the king: — most lamentably complaineth their 
woful misery, your poor beadsmen, the wretched, hideous, 
monsters, on whom scarcely, for horror, any eye dare look ; 
ihe lepers, and other sore people ; impotent, blind, lame, 
and sick, that live by alms, — how that their number is so 
increased, that all the alms of the well-disposed people, of 
this realm, are not half enough to sustain them ; but that 
for very constraint they die for hunger. This most pesti- 
lential mischief is come upon your poor beadsmen, by the 
reason that there is craftily crept into this realm, another 
sort, not of impotent, but of strong and counterfeit, holy, 
idle beggars, and vagabonds, which since the time of their 
first entry, by all the craft and wiliness of Satan, are now 
increased not only into a great number, but also into a 
kingdom ! 

These are not the herds, but ravenous wolves, going m 
herd's clothing; devouring the flock; bishops, abbots, 
priors, deacons, archdeacons, suffragans, priests, monks, 
canons, friars, pardoners, and sumners. Who is able to 
number this idle, ravenous sort, who, setting all labour 
aside, have begged so importunately that they have gotten 
into their hands, more than the third part of all your 
realm 7 The goodliest lordships, manors, lands, and ter- 
ritories, are theirs. Besides this, they have the tenth part 
of all the corn, meadow, pasture, grass, wood, colts, calves, 
lambs, pigs, geese, chickens ; over and besides, the tenth 
part of every servant's wages ; the tenth part of wool, 
milk, honey, wax, cheese, butter. And they look so nar- 
rowly upon their profits, that each wife must be accounta- 
ble to them for every tenth q^^ ; or else she getteth not her 
right at Easter, and shall be taken for a heretic. Hereto, 
they have their four offering days. What money pull they 
in by probate of wills, privy tithes; and men's offerings to 
their pilgrimages; and at their first masses! Everyman 
and child that is buried, must pay for masses and dirges. 
What money they get for mortuaries; by hearing confes- 
sions ; by hallowing of churches, altars, superaltars, chap- 



APPENDIX. 215 

els, and bells; by cursing of men, and again absolving 
them for money ! What a multitude of money gather the 
pardoners in a year ! and the sumners by their exertion, 
m citing people, and, then, releasing them for money ! 
The infinite number of begging friars, what get they in a 
year'? 

Here, if it please your grace to mark, you shall see a 
thing far out of joint. There are in your realm, fifty-two 
thousand parish churches. And, this standing, that 
there be but ten households, in every parish, yet are there 
five hundred and twenty thousand households. Of every of 
these households, hath every one of the five orders of friars 
a penny and a quarter, for every order : that is, £430,330 
6s. Sd. sterling. Whereof, four hundred years ago, they 
had not one penny. O grievous exaction of which the an- 
cient Britons stood free. * * * What tyrant ever oppress- 
ed the people, like this cruel, and revengeful generation ! 
What subjects shall be able to help their prince, that after 
this fashion, be yearly polled ! * * * Lay these to the fore- 
said third part of the possessions of this realm, got by this 
ravenous insatiable generation, that you may see the total 
sum draweth far above one half of the whole substance of 
your grace's realms ! 

* * * Yet they are not the one hundredth person. What 
an unequal burden is it, that they should have the one half 
with the multitude, and are not the one hundredth part of 
their number ! Was ever a commonwealth so oppressed 
since the world began ! And what do these greedy, sturdy, 
idle thieves, with those quarterly exactions that they take 
off the people ^ Truly, nothing, but exempt themselves 
from your grace's obedience ! Nothing, but translate all 
rule, power, lordship, obedience, and dignity, from your 
grace unto themselves ! Nothing, but that all your sub- 
jects should fall into disobedience, and rebellion against 
your grace, as they did against King John ! * * * 

Oh! case most horrible, that every king, and realm, 
should thus be made to stoop to such blood-suckers ! * * * 
What do they morel Truly, nothing, but apply them- 
selves, by all sleights, to have to do with every man's 
wife, and every man's daughter, and every man's maid ; 
that lewdness should reign over all your grace's subjects ; 
that no man should know his own children ; that their bas- 
tards should inherit every man's possessions ; to put the 



216 APPENDIX. 

right children beside their inheritance, in subversion of 
all estates, and all godly order !" * * * 

III. Index expurgatorius. — The best definition of the use 
of the Index, is given by a Spanish Roman Catholic, in the 
Lond. Cath. Mag. of 1832, p. 50. Says Mr. Fejada, "The 
Indexes Expurgatory are employed in those kingdoms 
altogether catholic : and in which there is no liberty in 
worship, or of printing permitted." He should have add- 
ed, — where no man is allowed the use of his own soul, 
but as Romish priests condescend to permit him 1 Its sole 
design is to arrest the progress of knowledge, and liberty. 

Under the head of St. Chrysostom, the following words, 
of this father, namely, — " Priests are subjected to priiices,^^ 
are made to suffer papal expulsion. See p. 703. — To this 
I add the Inquisitor's damnatory sentence on Lewis Vives, 
who had taught that the king^s paioer ajid majesty is infe- 
rior only to God on earth. This in p. 65, is ordered to be 
" expurgated." — As the best book on the subject, I refer 
to Mendham's Literary policy of the church of Borne, ex- 
hibited in an account of the damnatory catalogues^ or Indi- 
ces, both Prohibitory, and Expurgatory. Lond. 1830. 

IV. Absolution. — See my Letters, xii, p. 220. It is usual- 
ly said by many Protestants, and by all Roman Catholics, 
that the priests do not pretend to pardon sin in granting 
absolution : but that they simply declare sin to be remit- 
ted to the penitent, by God. I shall quote a document, 
and leave the reader to decide hov/ far ignorance and im- 
posture have propagated this sentiment. Here are the 
words of the decree of the Council of Trent, which, as 
every priest knows, is of more authority in Rome, than 
the Bible. " Si quis dixerit, c^c. If any one shall say 
that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a, judi- 
cial act, but a naked ministry of pronouncing and de- 
claring that sins are remitted to the person confessing, 
pronded only that he believes, (fee. let him be accursed." 
Hence it is not simply a declaratory, hiii formal and judi- 
cial act of the priest, sitting as judge ; and in Christ's 
stead, uttering the sentence of pardon to the victims of his 
imposture! Concil. Trid. Sess. 14. Can. 9. 

V. St. Bonaventure's prayer to the Virgin Mary. " O 
felix Puerpera ! nostra plans scelera jure matris, impera 
Redemptori." — Hist, Sec. Ch. Au^. Commen. B. Virg.— 
Mom. Ex. p. 523. 



./ - 



!^ d^^>-<-^2^^ «st 



^^ff 



M 



H 156 82 n 







"i°<. 







0° / 





• . o « JO' 














^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. I 
^ Neutralizing agent: Magnesiunn Oxide 
*^^ Treatment Date: Jan. 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16065 
(724) 779-211 1 



o *!;^*. V v^^ »t^i'% V 



<^^ ; 








o '-^^. 



o > 



"^-o^ 



kOrr, 



. y^ ^^^ 



Ho^ 











<r. ♦^vr.* <o 












.}:^°^ ■ 



r-^^.y V'*ir^* <o 




0^ ^'r^^ ^> 






•^o V* : 



: ^^-^^^ 



"^^0^ 

,^°^ 








MAY 82 

N. MANCHESTER^ 

IMniAMA AAG^O 








"^o* iP^^. -«^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




